


Guardian Blue - The Duke of Absolution

by Alps_Sarsis



Series: Guardian Blue [6]
Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Character Growth, Comedy, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Self-Discovery, self-actualization
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-02
Updated: 2017-11-15
Packaged: 2019-01-28 11:56:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 29,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12606068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alps_Sarsis/pseuds/Alps_Sarsis
Summary: Having inadvertently saved the life of one of Zootopia's acclaimed heroes, Duke Weaselton finds himself struggling to keep that fresh 'not-a-crook' scent he woke up with.  He really wants to turn himself around this time!However, for someone with a criminal record, a second chance might seem precariously out of reach.  Despite his genuine intentions, the weasel is struggling and failing in every attempt.  But, some unexpected help might get him back on his feet and on the right path at last.





	1. Fortune and Misfortune

**Author's Note:**

> While life makes it tough to write sometimes, I have soooo many stories tumbling around in my head and they want to be free! I am setting this one free and allowing it to rampage through your story feeds. While this story is part of the Guardian Blue continuity, those following that story will notice a very singular difference right away. Please enjoy!
> 
> If you are just joining this series for the first time this story is in the continuum AFTER Season 2, so you will definitely want to read Thanks for the Fox and Guardian Blue Season One and Season Two for important context!

 

**The Duke of Absolution**

_ Chapter 1:  Fortune and Misfortune _

 

 

 

Foxes.  It all came down to foxes.  Duke really didn’t care about them.  He didn’t associate with them, and he avoided those shifty canids where possible, because if there was any creature in all of Zootopia more maligned than he was… it was foxes.  But, his whole life was now _completely_ derailed, not because of a _bad_ dealing with a fox, but for the nicest thing the boney weasel had ever done for one.  Now, everything was _messed up_.  Duke shouldered the simple canvas bag and continued walking along the alleyway.  He spotted another soda can and picked it up.  He fastidiously made certain it was empty before crushing it against the wall.

 

“Yeah, join my aluminum army, my flattened metal soldier,” he said with a sneer before putting the crushed can into the bag.  How had it actually come to this?  Was this really how it was all supposed to go?  He scurried the rest of the way down the untidy alleyway and made the fortuitous discovery of three more cans.  The river-side of Happytown was always extra-filthy.  It had been less so in the past three weeks because anything that could be recycled had been gathered by him.  He was out of his element, the former Duke of Bootleg.  He was now just Duke Weasleton, and he was collecting cans. 

 

 

As he rounded the corner and moved back onto the street, he nearly got stepped on by a yak who was too engrossed in his phone to notice the smaller mustelid.  He darted out of the way, twitchy reflexes once again sparing him injury.  Duke sighed and pulled the toothpick out of his narrow little muzzle.  He’d snapped it in half in his teeth in surprise at nearly being stomped on. 

 

“You were m’ last cinnamon.  Great.  Just the plain ones left now.  Sorry ol’ gal.”  Duke flicked the toothpick away with disdain.  He kicked a smoking habit with toothpicks but now he didn’t have the cash to buy a cigarette even if he _wanted_ to start again.  He scurried along, the bag over his shoulder mostly full.  It wasn’t too heavy.  He preferred to collect lighter metals.  Making sure the cans were completely empty was another thing he picked up very early on which made a significant difference in the load.  He hoped to find some of the larger cans used by elephants or rhinos, but pickers seemed to have already hit this area.  They often selectively went for those items.  It was just easier.  Duke didn’t care since there was still something left for him.

 

He was mostly ignored by mammals going about their business, rushing back and forth to enjoy their daily lives, simple or complex.  Duke envied the choices they must have in the city, but couldn’t begrudge them that.  The limit to his choices had been one of his earliest and most foolish choices.  There was no undoing that now.  He arrived at his destination and stood behind three raccoons with full bags.  They were obviously a family, all doing this same thing together. 

 

“Got a haul down by the docks today, huh?” Duke asked casually.

 

“Not tellin’,” the youngest of the raccoons, barely more than a child, stated.

 

“That’ll be a yes.  I kin smell tha salt.” Duke stated with a roll of his large eyes.

 

“Don’t talk to him, sweetie,” came the honestly expected reply of his mother.

 

“What, cause I’m doing the exact same thing yer all doing?” the weasel asked.

 

The larger father raccoon stepped forward.  “No, because we don’t need to hear anything from you, so shut it.”

 

“Nice to meetcha.” Duke said, gazing downward, and offering no other attempt at conversation.  He didn’t really take it personally.  They were standing in this line for a reason, and trust was hard to earn from broken mammals.  It wasn’t worth the struggle to win that trust either.  If you weren’t supplying something that someone wanted on these streets, you were no one’s friend. 

 

Duke used to be the mammal others came to when they wanted something.  He thought he had friends back then.  He was invited places.  He did things.  He knew lots of mammals.  Sure, he didn’t come across a lot of these things honestly, and it caused him a lot of headaches to get it, but he was _important_.  At least, from time to time he was.  But he had nothing anyone wanted now, and no way to get it at this point even if he did.

 

He found out very quickly that those dozens of important friendly contacts were far too busy to deal with a weasel that had nothing, so he was making the best out of what he could.  The raccoon family went in through the door, then out, still looking sullen.  There wasn’t a lot of comfort here.  But, there was a little, and that was enough.  Duke went through the doors and spilled his cans out on the scale.  The plate rattled noisily, and then went still.  It then tipped and dumped all the ‘trash’ down a chute with a much louder din.  A column with a picture of money stenciled onto it dinged, and a green light popped on.

 

Duke retrieved his earnings and sighed.  Eight dollars.  It would have to be enough.  He didn’t need much, after all.  Not just to be okay until tomorrow.  A lot of his time these days was spent dwelling on making sure he’d be alright tomorrow.  He wiped his little paws off on his white tank-top shirt and put them in the pockets of his black and red shorts.  The chocolate-toned weasel sauntered down the road a little ways to a place he knew very well, and always felt welcome.

 

The sun was at its highest point in the sky, which made for a warm trek, but Duke never had much luck gathering recyclables in the evening or at night, there were too many other mammals that had the same idea.  The competition wasn’t fair for smaller mammals.  He braved the heat of day for his meal ticket.  And a meal ticket this was!  He entered “The Meek”, a small and unassuming diner that catered to smaller mammals.  Nothing larger than a coyote would likely even fit through the door.  The food was decent though, and the prices were low.  Best of all, they were just like him.  They liked money, and didn’t care who gave it to them.  He was never treated unkindly so long as he was a customer.  He could live with that. 

 

“Usual?” asked the older meerkat lady at the counter.

 

“Nah, been tight.  Just a biscuit, some butter, and a coffee.  Did you guys happen to’ve got any more ah yer toothpicks?” Duke asked.

 

The meerkat looked at him with a tilt of her head.  “No, you’ve wiped em all out, hon.  The trade shop didn’t have anymore.  We’ll get em back in soon, I’m sure.  We have non-flavored ones if you like.”

 

“Thanks Sadie, but no.  I got those.  They ain’t as satisfyin’,” he murmured.  Duke sat down and waited for his food to be served, really looking forward to his coffee.  If he could get coffee and nothing else, he would not count his day as a full write-off.  He watched the other patrons.  They were literally all on their phones.  It didn’t seem so long ago that everyone was staring into open newspapers, small fiction novels, all that.  It felt like things were moving forward with technology, but was it really, actually, and truly forward?

 

“One biscuit!” Sadie chimed, placing the small round plate before him.  A single friendly pat of butter sat cheerily alongside it.  It was steaming and warm.  Yes, that would be enough.  Sadie filled Duke’s coffee cup and added, as per usual, three sugars and extra cream.  The weasel could happily drink coffee black, but this way, he got more energy and sustenance from it.  The cream especially.  He thanked Sadie and enjoyed his food.  He took his time with it, since it wasn’t much and felt more fulfilling if it still took kind of long to eat.  He wasn’t very large, but he needed a lot of energy.  Weasels had pretty high metabolisms.

 

After Duke finished and Sadie gathered his plate and his money, he regarded her quietly a moment.  He finally murmured quietly, “Did Mikey ever get back with ya about my application?  The sign’s still on the door.”  He poked a thumb in the direction of it.

 

The kind meerkat sighed.  “I wish we could Duke, you know I do, but the job requires you to be able to lift 50 pounds.  You don’t even _weigh_ fifty pounds, hon.”

 

“Can _you_ pick up 50 pounds?” Duke asked.  She glanced away.  “If it’s my background check, you kin tell me that, y’know.  I’m not gonna get all offended.”

 

Sadie looked back up to him, “I’m sorry, Duke.  It was.  I wish I could help, but…”  She appeared mildly uncomfortable.

 

The weasel shook his head, “You don’t gotta apologize.  I made my bed, not you.  It’s fine.  Thanks for lettin’ me try anyway.”  He was angry, but it wouldn’t do any good to let it show.  He was trying.  What good did it do if there was literally nothing to try for?  Still, he was determined.  There was still something he could do, and for now he was doing it.  For how lowly the task felt, it still felt like more honest work than the insurance company did.  He didn’t mind that job, but he did not realize how quickly mammalian resources would catch that he had maybe not been entirely forthcoming on his application when it asked if he’d been convicted of a felony.  He had marked it in such a way that the line kind of went a tiny bit through yes, and a little more through no.  A few weeks into that job, despite things going swimmingly, he was out.

 

 

He’d figure something out.  He was smart!  He just needed time to think.  As he got up to leave, he heard a voice behind where he’d been sitting.

 

“Not working right now then?”  It was a very pleasant and melodic female voice.  Duke turned and peered into the other booth.  A rather elegant-looking lady fox was sitting there.  She was older, and wore a nice, proper dress and accompanying shawl.  She looked like she could maybe have a bit of money to her name, but looks could be deceiving.  This was especially true when dealing with deceivers.  Duke regarded her pleasant smile carefully, trying to gauge her.  She seemed just a little _too_ pleasant.

 

“I don’t have so much as a buck on me,” he explained.  He didn’t want anything from her, and had nothing to give her even if he did.  Which he didn’t.  He turned away.

 

She spoke again, smiling brightly to the weasel.  “I could use a little help with something.  It’s rather hard work, but if you really need the money, I don’t suspect you’ll mind.”  She seemed educated in her tone and somewhat demure compared to what he was used to with vixens in and around Happytown.

 

Duke watched her with a measured gaze for a moment.  He knew a too-good-to-be-true when he saw it.  He spoke in a softer tone, “I’m not sure if you just heard the little exchange there, lady, but I’m not farin’ so good these days an’ it’s all from crossing the legal line.  If this work is…”  He saw her frown slightly.

 

She shook her head vigorously.  “Oh!  Goodness, no.  It’s labor.  Simple ‘move this stuff over here to that place over there’.  I _could_ go through one of those on the spot hire places, but I don’t have time to sit there and fill out forms and all that.  I have too much to do.”

 

“I’m not the kind ah mammal most folks ask to do heavy labor.”  Duke indicated his smallness.  “You’d likely have better luck with a larger mammal.  You have lots of options.”  He didn’t like passing up money.  He never liked passing up money, but this had trouble written all over it.  He knew better.

 

The vixen looked a little crestfallen, and replied softly, “Can you think of a reason why randomly finding a decent mammal to help me might be _harder_ for me?” she asked, scooping up her own tail and stroking it, a clear indication of what she meant.  Duke tensed up.  She knew he was avoiding her.  She knew it was because he suspected she was conning him somehow, and she had very sharply ascertained why.

 

“Look lady, I will help if yer really payin’.  But I been tricked before… and it ain’t about _you_.  This kin be a hard city for the trusting sort.  No way you been around this long and ain’t found that out yet.”  He followed her as she went to the counter to pay for her coffee.

 

“I promise, you will be recompensed fairly for your labor, Derek,” the vixen stated kindly.  She took some cash out of her pocketbook and paid, before turning to head out the door.  “Come along, then.  It’s not far.  It won’t take too long.”

 

“It’s Duke.  Duke Weaselton.”  He turned to follow her, but saw a flash of green flutter down from the edge of her pocketbook.  He glanced down at it as she stepped out the door.  She dropped money, neatly folded.  It was the one thing everyone pretty much always wanted.  He leaned down to pick it up.  It was two fifties.  His heart nearly froze.  He looked up and noticed that the fox was completely outside the diner, and no one else saw him pick it up.

 

Duke cringed at that.  That was it.  The world was just _messing_ with him.  It was baiting him into thinking his luck was just swinging right back around.  He growled a little through his teeth, pushing out the door.

 

“Lady!  Hey lady, hold up!”  The weasel strode quickly after her up the sidewalk.  She turned around, giving a kind smile.

 

“I wasn’t gonna leave you,” she stated pleasantly.  “I knew you’d catch up.”

 

“You uh… You dropped dis,” he said, offering her the folded up cash.

 

“Oh!  Wow…”  She was obviously a little embarrassed.  “That would have been silly of me.  I need that to actually _buy_ the stuff you are supposed to carry.”  She took it back.  Duke sighed as the sweet, sweet money went away.  He walked along behind the vixen, watching her voluminous tail sway side to side, the pungent smell of fox wafting about.  There were flecks of silver mixed into her russet fur, showing her to be a refined older mammal.  She appeared respectable at a glance, but how many times had he made _that_ mistake before?  What in the world was he doing?  He felt pretty sure this was not going to be as lucrative as what he already had clutched in his little paw.  Still, he had his reasons. 

 

“Hard work huh?” he asked, making small talk as they walked.  “Nothing more’n like… 30 pounds, right?”

 

She replied in a sunny tone, “You’ll have a paw-truck to use, it won’t be too bad, but I’ll have one as well, and I can’t manage two on these busy sidewalks.”  Duke nodded, feeling like that was reasonable.  He scurried quickly to keep up.  She was taller, so his short legs needed to move faster.  They walked down the avenue for a while, Duke alert to not just let her lead him into a blind alley or something.  He felt kind of bad about his caution, he really did, but foxes had a reputation for a _reason_.  He wasn’t interested in being tricked today.

 

Finally, after a bit more walking, he found that he was being led into a hardware store.  This was really not what he was expecting.  He figured he might be hauling the possibly wealthy older lady’s groceries back for her or something.  Maybe she was fixing up her place.  She immediately wasn’t sure where to go.

 

“Whatcha lookin’ for?” Duke inquired.

 

“Paint.” The lady fox answered.

 

“I’ll take ya to it.  I used to do some fix-it stuff, before my little ‘change of employment opportunities’,” he said, trying to doll up the obvious. 

 

The older, more elegant female followed behind the thin, ropey mustelid.  “So… you’ve been to prison then, is that what I am understanding?” she asked. 

 

Duke sighed as he led her to the appropriate aisle.  Here it came.  “Yeah, three times, actually.  First time was a dumb mistake, second time I probably deserved it.  I did about six months.  Third time… I really messed up.  I woulda been in there for who knows how many years, but I cut a deal with the DA.  I got out in six months with spotless behavior.”  He indicated that they were at the paint.  If she were any kind of respectable mammal, she would probably pass him five bucks for his time and suggest they part ways.

 

The fox was quiet for a while as she moved down the aisle with two little swatches that she had taken out of her purse for comparison.  It was a pink and eggshell combination she had there.  She focused on that for a while, leaving Duke hanging anxiously.  Was she trying to think of a way to ditch him or an excuse to dismiss him?  He didn’t need to be insulated.  As she looked, she finally spoke again.  “Did you hurt anyone?” He recoiled at that.

 

“What?  No, good gravy no!  First time was for shopliftin’, second time was possession of counterfeit merchandise with intent to distribute,” he explained.  “Third time… I dunno… I didn’t hurt no one directly… but I was stealin’ stuff that ended up getting used bad.  Mammals got hurt, even if I didn’t do the hurtin’.  No lyin’ about that.  I don’t… I dun wanna talk about it.”  Everyone he knew that hadn’t been inside of a prison liked to think that the moment anyone went to jail they had to be a monster.  That was the crux of his whole problem these days.  “Just… Just know I ain’t the type to go around hurtin’ anyone.”  He paused at that, recalling what harm the Nighthowlers he was collecting had caused and trailed, “… at least, not _intentionally_.”

 

The fox smiled at that and shook her head.  “Well that’s good.  Still, it seems like you aren’t too successful at the uh… other stuff either.”  She gave a rather smug smile.  Duke scrunched his little muzzle.  What was that supposed to imply?

 

“I ain’t successful at it ‘cause I ain’t doing it no more,” he said, pointing at a can of paint that seemed to match the swatch.  The vixen immediately compared and accepted that with a curt nod.

 

“Well, I can’t say I am disappointed at all by that,” she stated, “… but why the change?  Just reformed in jail?” she asked.  Duke shook his head as she moved the cart over and then put four very large cans into it.  She then quietly started searching for the other color.  Duke did not feel like sharing all his problems and complexities with anyone, even if she appeared nice. 

 

He said gruffly, “I had a wakeup call, that’s all.”

 

The rather graceful vixen regarded him a moment, and then nodded.  “Good enough, I suppose, but I know it’s hard.”  He shook his head.  This likely ‘well-to-do’ fox didn’t know the half of it.  She found the other color she was after and took two large cans of that.  She then picked up four large cans of primer and some paint thinner and a few brushes and roller, all found between this same aisle and the next.  Duke figured that it really would be hard to get all that home on her own. 

 

They went to the registers, the total being over a hundred, along with deposit and rental of the paw-trucks.  Duke would have really ruined her day if he’d kept the money and bolted.  He was glad he didn’t, and actually scolded himself for it ever even crossing his mind.  Maybe he needed it more… he didn’t know, but that wasn’t who he was going to be.  He followed the lady out, appreciating her kindness in helping him get the paint onto his paw-truck and secured.  She took an equal amount on hers, and they started walking.  Duke originally suspected that she might live in a nice established neighborhood like one might find on the outskirts of Happytown, but they didn’t go that way.  They stopped at a bus stop.

 

“You said it was close,” Duke stated with a hint of irritation.  He didn’t want to end up half way across town!  He didn’t even know how much this old fox was paying him.  If he got back in time he might even be able to gather enough cans not to have to pick up any tomorrow.

 

“No, I said it wouldn’t take long.  And it won’t.  Don’t worry, it’s not too far,” she said encouragingly.  She had a very pleasant demeanor even when Duke knew he was being a little abrasive.  He felt a little out of place even being around her.  Would someone like this really have had trouble finding anyone else to do this?  They got on the bus and carefully secured the paw-trucks.  The vehicle pulled away, and the weasel rode along quietly for a while.

 

The vixen eventually spoke up.  “Do you have any family?” she asked.  Duke looked up at her.  While he might normally have been irritated by that sort of question from a near stranger, the warmness of this fox really pushed the sweet familial sort of tone.  It just felt like the kind of thing he would have expected her to ask if she was making small talk.

 

“I got a sister here in the city, and she’s got kits.  My mom and Dad are gone, and I ain’t really the relationship type.  I ain’t easy for mammals to get along with for long periods.  I tried it, it ain’t for me,” he said, a little jittery talking about personal stuff.  He chewed one of his claws.  The fox was quiet a moment and then opened her purse, digging around in it.  Duke closed his eyes to hide the fact that he was almost painfully rolling them.  Of course.  She was going to show him a family album, he just knew it.  When he opened his eyes, he saw instead a wrapped sucker held out to him.  He blinked.

 

She offered in that honeyed tone, “I heard you asking about toothpicks.  This is all I’ve got.  It’s hot though.”  Duke could immediately smell the cinnamon.  Did he choke on his biscuit and die?  What luck was this?  He took the treat.  Of course this sweet old dame carried candy in her purse, why wouldn’t she?  All sweet old dames carried candy in their purses for little kits when they came near. 

 

“Th-thank you,” he said.

 

“Former smoker?” she asked. 

 

“Yeah.  And before y’ ask, I quit cause smokin’s why it’s just me’n my sister now.”  He unwrapped the sucker and popped it in his mouth.  Red, spicy heaven. 

 

“Sorry to hear that,” she replied, her tone sounding genuine.  They were quiet again for a moment, riding on the bus.  The longer he was near her, the more out of place Duke felt.  This was a _really_ nice lady.  He no longer expected to be conned by her, he expected someone else to con her and him to have to see that.  That would test his limits more than trash-picking did.  “This is our stop,” she finally said, nodding ahead.  Duke helped get her started with moving the buckets off the bus.  The driver, a wolf, helped her as well.  Finally, they walked on a much calmer sidewalk.  It was no longer lunch time, so that was a factor.  There were restaurants and a few small shops along this stretch.  It did not look at all residential.

 

Finally, they arrived in front of what looked like a closed and boarded up shop.  The lady fox parked her paw-truck and dug in her purse, taking out some keys.

 

“You live here?” Duke asked curiously.

 

“No, I’m hoping to work here.  Setting up shop, as it were,” she offered.  Duke stepped back a little.  It was a fairly small shop in the front, but was likely set back pretty deep.  It was two stories, set in a little strip between a noodle place and a zany-looking fortune-telling place.  He wondered what the kind vixen would be selling here.  She felt like the ‘scrap-book and pictures of baby animals’ sort, if he had to guess.  If he ever got money again, he would check it out.  With a jingling of keys, the door was opened and he stepped inside. 

 

Duke whistled.  It was… rough.  It was going to need a healthy portion of work before this was the kind of shop that _this_ nice, refined vixen belonged in.  The floor was mottled and stained concrete.  The walls were bare and off-white with a few dents and holes.  The ceiling was just railing and lights and duct-work with one big wobbly ceiling fan.  The back area looked like it had actually been on fire at some point, though the scorching was minimal and the damage was repairable.  Evidence suggested that might have been a little restaurant that caught fire at some point.

 

“Oh yeah, it looks like it needs some work!” Duke announced.

 

“Yes, it’s gonna be a project for sure!” the fox joyfully laughed.  Duke turned to comment on the condition of the place, and saw the vixen holding another fifty dollars.  It was a single bill, offered to him.

 

He stared at it, his already large eyes suddenly even larger.  “That… is quite a bit more than I expected,” Duke said in a cautious tone.  Sweet lemon drops.  It was actually legit.  It wasn’t a trick.  There was no lead into something less reputable, or an outright cheat of his time.  He felt a loathsome prickle of shame for having automatically assumed it would be.  She didn’t deserve that.  He took the cash.  He would be able to have an honest to goodness supper.  It had been a while.

 

“You worked, you deserve to be paid.  Right?” she asked.

 

“I rolled a cart.” Duke insisted, though not immediately giving the money back.  He really needed this.

 

“Very professional-like, I might add,” the fox chuckled.

 

Duke laughed back a little, putting the cash in his pocket.  “Thank you.  I… I mean it.  I don’t get a lot of opportunities these days.  It’s still kinda rough out there for preds in general.  I’m sure you know.”  He looked down.  It was real.  She was real.  He did a thing and got paid.  He had a lucky break.  It was _about damned time_.

 

“Before you go…”  Her words drove an ice spike through Duke’s heart.  There was a condition.  Of course there was going to be a condition.  Damn you, Universe.  He looked up fearfully.  The kind older female’s expression was still achingly pleasant and sweet as she asked, “Do you know how to paint?”  He gazed back at her silently, wide-eyed, then to the shop and all the paint.  After a bewildered pause from Duke, she hastily added, “I… I’ll pay you of course.  I could use the help!  It’s a big job.”  Duke sucked in a slow, wavering breath.

 

“Y…Yeah.  Yeah!  Sure, I paint!  Like I said, I did fix-it stuff.”  He forced himself to calm down a little.  He didn’t want to seem weird.  This was a _completely_ unexpected opportunity.  He had no intention of turning down _paying_ , honest work.  The lady fox smiled with genuine gratitude.  Duke rubbed the back of his head, looking at the supplies.  He might need to get some masking tape, and he definitely would have to find a pan.  He began thinking ahead to doing the best job he could do.  If she was happy with it, she might even have more work for him.  This place needed all kinds of work.

 

The vixen slowly sighed and noted, “It’s a little late in the afternoon to start straight away, I think.  Would you be opposed to meeting me here at nine tomorrow morning so we can make a day of it?  I certainly don’t want to paint dressed like this, in any event.  You won’t be working all alone,” she explained.

 

“What?  Oh yeah!  Of course.  Sure, sure.” Duke stammered.  This was _great_.  This was really great.  He felt a twinge of regret again for how he felt about this fox when he first met her.  He’d do his best to make it up to her.  He then realized that he’d been pretty rude the whole time he’d been in her company, and decided to rectify it.  He held out a small paw.  “I look forward to it.  It’s very good to meet you… Mrs…?” he looked up, hoping to at least know what to call her.

 

“Vivienne.  You can call me Viv.”


	2. Contracting and Retracting

 

**The Duke of Absolution**

_ Chapter 2:  Contracting and Retracting _

 

 

 

Duke shuffled slightly under the pile of balled up newspaper.  Another morning, another chance to try to make something out of it.  He then suddenly sat bolt upright, launching paper balls like popcorn out of the cardboard box he was semi-cozily curled up in.  What time was it?  He looked out across the street at the printing shop.  It was open.  That meant it was at least eight.  He had eaten too much the night before.  As a direct result, he’d slept better than he had since his first night out of his apartment.  The small mammal got up, shaking himself out a bit before darting through traffic recklessly to the window of the print shop to see the clock.  It was 8:45.  He was absolutely not going to make it to the shop on time.

 

“Just great!” Duke growled at himself.  “Freakin’ perfect!”  He began running and made it nearly a block before he fairly screamed some combination of garbled obscenity, shocking a jogging leopard close by.  He turned and scurried in a panicked rush back to his box.  He grabbed, rather awkwardly, an aluminum pan that was intended as a pie tin for a very large pie.  It was large enough that it would have been as wide as an ideal hula hoop for him.  Inside of it resided a roll of masking tape and a little bottle of paint thinner he’d bought the previous night.  As fast as he could, he darted frantically back toward the bus stop.  He fortunately got there about a minute before the bus itself arrived.  He would not be too horribly late.  Still, to get there on time, he’d have to have caught the previous bus.  He hoped that Viv was in a forgiving mood.

 

He got a few stares as he sat down, trying to balance the large pan between his small lap and the back of the seat ahead of him.  He didn’t really care.  He was in a better mood than he had been in a while, if a bit nervous.  He knew how to do what he was going to be paid to do.  If he got there late, would she just go and find someone else to help her?  He didn’t want to lose this chance to pad his finances a little, so he wasn’t literally living day to day.  If he could get a start, he might even be able to figure out a way to make something of it.  He had considered doing business at the flea market with cheap, but _authentic_ merchandise to get by, but he needed a start.  This might be just what he needed. 

 

He needed to transfer one bus, and lost some time doing that.  He watched nine pass by on the transfer-station clock and sighed, twitching a foot-paw nervously.  Great.  He hoped that she would accept his apology.  It was all he could possibly offer.  The second bus finally came and he climbed on, watching the city lumber by at the usual slow pace. 

 

It was quiet and uneventful for a while.  It let Duke ponder angles where he might invest the money he’d get on this job to sustain himself and still start getting ahead.  He was fine with his box arrangement for now, but that was not a great long term way to live.  He liked the flea-market idea the best because he was experienced at selling things to the masses in a busy and possibly disinterested environment.  Still, he’d have way more competition there.  It would be hard. 

 

 Without warning, the bus unexpectedly slammed on brakes, sending Duke hard into the seat ahead of him.  He groaned and got up off the floor, then looked with horror at his perfectly folded pan.  It looked like a silver clam, containing his tape and paint thinner.

 

“Damn it, why?” he asked himself pleadingly.  He picked it up, trying to unfold it.  The bus had not started moving again.  “Hey, is everything okay?” he asked, immediately impatient.  He was already late.

 

“I hope he didn’t hit another damned rabbit,” came a loud and admonishing call from the back.  Cars behind the bus began honking.

 

“There’s a situation on the bridge,” the moose-cow bus driver said helplessly, indicating the bridge that went over the canal ahead of them.  There were police cars and a firetruck ahead.  Duke groaned.

 

“I’ll just get off here then, I’m already late!”  He went to the front of the bus and the driver reluctantly allowed the weasel and two other passengers to get off.  She stated clearly that this normally was only allowed at a valid stop, but she was sure that she wasn’t going anywhere for a while.  Duke ignored her mostly and ran ahead.  The hang-up on the bridge was caused by an overturned peanut truck and tons of peanuts all over the bridge.  It was a real mess.  He did not envy the cleanup crew for that.  He actually had to climb a mountain of peanuts to get by, and the ridiculousness of his trial was not lost on him.  Once over it, he was on his way again.  It was, based on the time displayed on an ATM he’d walked by, past nine-thirty when he got there.  He skidded to a halt in front of the door and gave it a try.

 

It was locked.

 

Duke just sat down in front of it with a morose expression, resting his head in his paws.  That was it.  Vivienne got tired of waiting and she went to go hire a temp worker or something.  She was right to do that.  She didn’t really know him from anyone.  She certainly didn’t know him well enough to suspect he hadn’t just drank himself into a stupor with her money, and had no intention of making good on showing up for work.

 

He sighed deeply and leaned back against the door.  He spent money… his own money that she’d paid him on the extra supplies.  It was nearly a third of his earnings.  What a dumb mess this turned out to be.  He considered for a moment just leaving the stuff there and walking home, so as not to waste more money on the bus that he might need for food instead.  He ultimately decided to just wait a while.  When she got there with her new helper, he would at least apologize and explain so that she wasn’t left with the impression that he never even tried.

 

Trying was all Duke Weaselton had been doing for nearly three months.  Why was he actually worse off for it?  He sighed and rested the back of his little head against the large wooden door with a clunk.  He caught his breath as he sat there for what felt like about ten minutes.  People wandered by and ignored the small mammal on the stoop of a closed down shop.  It was not an uncommon sight around the city.  He was shaken from his quiet self-loathing by Vivienne’s voice. 

 

She called out, “Goodness, I am so sorry!  I got delayed making breakfast!”  Duke looked up, eyes wide as he saw the older fox hurrying up the sidewalk, a wide, covered pan in her paws.  He stared, unblinking.  She made him breakfast?  Viv stopped, leaning down and catching her breath a little.  The lady fox was dressed in denim trousers and a dark grey tank-top.  This was far less elegant than yesterday.  It was understandable, given the work that was supposed to be ahead of them.  After getting her wind back, he explained, “The oven wasn’t working.  I hadn’t used it since I moved into my new apartment, and I already had the food out and everything.  I had to wait for maintenance.”  Duke was a little stunned by his repeated positive luck.  A chance meeting for a decent paying odd-job and then breakfast?  Unthinkable. 

 

He shook his head a bit, and replied, “Nah, it’s okay.  I was runnin’ late, too.  Bus got snared up by an accident on the Canal Bridge.  Peanuts over your head, Viv - it was nuts.”  The vixen laughed then put a paw over her muzzle.

 

“I shouldn’t laugh, it was a traffic accident!  That’s terrible.” she scolded herself.  She unlocked the door.  Duke sighed at the feeling of reprieve.  He had been absolutely sure everything was messed up.  He brought in the little pan and other supplies.  Vivienne brought the covered container over to a low table and pulled up a chair.  Duke couldn’t tell what was in it because the top of the container was fogged up.  He hopped up into his chair, having to actually stand in it. 

 

“You didn’t have ta do this, Viv…” Duke said, huge eyes peering at the container as she opened it.  The plume of steam cleared and revealed… biscuits, cut fruit, cheese… and eggs.  The weasel gasped, paws on his cheeks.  He loved eggs, but the _few_ places that served them usually over-cooked them.  This was because they tended to really gross out the occasional non-predatory patron otherwise.  Mostly, if he ordered eggs somewhere, they were unrecognizable as eggs when he got them.  He liked his eggs runny.  And there they were.  Sunny-side up.  Yellow and white joyful perfection on perfectly baked and buttery biscuits.

 

“I hope this is okay,” Vivienne said softly, helping herself to a biscuit and a few slices of cantaloupe.  Duke restrained himself a little from gushing about how that, above all meals, was his ultimate favorite. 

 

“This is fine, fine!” he said with some tamped-down enthusiasm.  She provided him with a fork and he wasted no time digging in.  Oh yeah, he was going to do as good a job as he could painting this place.  This was how you won a weasel’s loyalty, right here!  Vivienne appeared inclined entirely to the fruit and a single biscuit, leaving Duke to stuff himself giddy on the two eggs.  He hit the sharp, but soft cheese pretty hard, too.  His food was gone quickly which left the fox nibbling her fare in a calm, sort of demure manner.  Duke didn’t want to seem like he was just staring at her while she ate.  Small talk should be okay, right?

 

“So ah… You moved into a new place, eh?  Did ya move from far off?  Don’t take it the wrong way or nuttin’, but you don’t seem like our typical Happytown lady-fox.”  She looked up, chewing her food casually a bit, and then smiling.

 

“How is your typical Happytown lady-fox?” she asked kindly.  Duke’s eyes bugged out a little.  There was no other way to take that question, really.  He didn’t intend to disparage foxes, but he most definitely had.

 

“You, ah… seem more… I mean… You ain’t really…”  He was sunk.  “You carry yourself with a lot of confidence is all…  Like the city ain’t wrung you out yet.”

 

She just smiled and spoke in that consistently pleasant and relaxing tone, “I moved here from New Reynard.”  Duke was let off the hook.  He would not be so assuming again, he promised himself.  The little mammal then furrowed his low mustelid brow.

 

“Ah.  I ah… I don’t know where dat even is.  Never heard of it.”

 

“It’s well outside Zootopia,” Vivienne explained.  “It’s very small, and more than two hours out.”  She nodded at that, seeming not at all offended that her little helper was unfamiliar.  There was, as there had been since he met her, a continuing conflict inside the smaller mammal.  Mystery never set well with him.  Surprises almost never ended in his favor.  Here, this ‘too-good-to-be-true’ fox was from a place outside of his reckoning.  It did not help to put his suspicious mind at ease. 

 

He couldn’t believe that anyone would just make breakfast for him like that, unprompted, and still expect just what the agreed terms had been.  He was being paid to paint.  Was she low on money?  Was breakfast now part of the payment?  Would he seem completely ungrateful if that was a problem to him?  Given that it was perfectly cooked eggs, was it even really problem to him?  These thoughts formed a swift whirlwind inside his little head.  He tried to push the twinge of worry away, and continued with the small talk.

 

“So, what’s makin’ you move out here then?  Just starting the new business?  Expanding, maybe?” he asked.

 

“I have family here in Zootopia.  I want to live closer.”  Her tone was matter-of-fact, not seeming to mind that maybe it was more information than Duke really needed.

 

“Family… Like, husband and kits and the like?” he asked.  It was an intentional compliment from Duke, making the insinuation that she was a mother and had a mate.

 

“My husband’s passed,” Vivienne explained in a softer tone.  Duke recoiled, having not hoped to hear something like that.  “My son lives in the city, and he’s got himself a girl and a decent job here, so I feel like he’s settling down.  New Reynard’s nice.  It’s quiet.  But it’s phenomenally dull sometimes.”  She carefully fastened the lid back on the food.  There was some fruit left, and a bit of cheese.  It would stand for later.

 

“Sorry to hear about… you know…”  Duke looked down.

 

“Oh, it’s been more than twenty years, hon,” she replied, shaking her head.

 

“Wow… that long?  Guess you’re vowed up too, huh?” he asked, then inwardly scolded himself.  That was being way too personal.  “Y’know, that’s not my bid’ness, I just… that’s real long.”  She nodded slowly to him, and did not look offended.  However, she did get up and turned to look around, perhaps to figure out where to start.  Duke had heard about the vow thing from one of his former associates.  Foxes often never took a new mate if they lost one.  It was a very serious kind of deal.  It had to be hard on a mom like that.  He rubbed the back of his head, dismissing his second social blunder of the morning as he focused on what needed to be done.

 

Duke broke the silence, speaking with some authority, “Well, first… I guess we need to get the wood out of the windows and get those open.”  She looked back at him curiously and he nodded at the two large windows to the small shop-front.

 

“Yes, I suppose you’re right, we need to have air-flow.  I will work on that if you want to start prepping.”  The vixen set to work, pulling nails out of the boards with a hammer.  It was hard work, but Duke was well aware that he lacked the upper body strength for it.  The vixen was stronger than she looked too.  However, if she lived alone, she would have been self-sufficient at least.  He had some mean thoughts about a son that remained in the city to get a nice job and chase tail while his dear, sweet mom was slaving in a small town, hours away.  That just wasn’t right.

 

Duke filled the pan with pasty white primer and, once Vivienne got at least one window, as well as the front door open, he took the hefty roller and attached an extension and began to work.  Viv got the other window opened with some work.  She took a drink of water and rested a little before she picked up a brush and began applying primer to edges and the like.  Duke had plenty of energy from two good meals back to back and was in good cheer already.  When the fox began to sing to break the quiet tedium of their work, he found himself having an even better day of it.

 

Part of him fought an inner battle about slowing down a little, taking his time so that maybe he could squeeze two days of work into it.  He paused at the thought when he realized that it wasn’t even out of greed for this vixen’s cash, it was out of merely wanting to continue to put in a good day’s honest work.  The little mammal was actually enjoying this.  This luck, he knew, was going to run out soon.  When this was done, she would not need him anymore.  Maybe she had contacts in the city and could help him find work.  If he did a good job and didn’t waste time, he stood a better chance of that, so the weasel decided not to do it too slowly.

 

The next few hours went by pretty quickly, all things told.  Duke hadn’t done this sort of work in a very long time, so he knew he would be kind of sore from it.  Smaller mammals like him were not designed for the kind of pushing and pulling that painting with an extended roller required, but he didn’t complain, and it wasn’t like the fox was task-mastering him or anything.  She worked her tail off too. 

 

After a while, Vivienne had put her phone in the middle of the room and let it play music fairly loudly.  It was hard rock.  The weasel certainly had a taste for that genre, so he appreciated it.  The conversation was pretty minimal, as the music set a good work pace.  By noon, the primer was on, and they took a break to finish off the cheese and fruit and let the air circulate.  Vivienne took a phone call and then waited over by the door a bit.  Duke assumed it was family, or someone else helping, though she hadn’t said anyone would be joining them.

 

They talked for a while, as they let the primer dry, about the town Vivienne was from.  Duke hadn’t been out of the city before, so he thought all the shows he’d seen on TV about small towns were referencing things from long ago.  It was weird to him that those kinds of places were real, and the mammals who lived there were really like that.  She told him about silly things that would happen there and get talked about in the diner she’d worked at.  They discussed how she would kind of miss some of the charm of working there.  Duke told Vivienne about a few of the honest jobs he did before he went less-than-legit.  She was particularly interested in the city-services one, but that one was among his least favorite for how back-breaking and thankless it really was.  They eventually steered away from that experience.

 

As they were talking about the store where Vivienne bought her eggs, there was a raspy horn-honk outside.  The lady fox hopped up and went to the door as Duke’s smallish ears caught the sound of an idling engine cutting out.  Duke remained at the short table with the empty food tray.  Vivienne eventually held the door to let in another fox.

 

Vivienne spoke warmly, “Yes, yes, of course, let me put it right in here.  Thank you so much, Gid.”  Duke sat up a little straighter.  This was a rather husky sort of fox, and he looked strong, maybe even a little rough.  He had on jeans and a checkered shirt. This must be her son who left her all alone to chase his dreams in the big city.  Vivienne took a small tray covered in foil from him and put it on the table on top of the empty breakfast container.  Duke begrudgingly got up to greet the newly arriving fox.  Vivienne had warmed on him, but this new fox was starting out at the default setting of ‘a fox’ and he didn’t trust him.  A little paw was held out.

 

The slightly heavy fox took it and gave a firm shake.  “Well, howdy, Duke!  Yer doin’ a good job, she said.  Lookin’ mighty fine from here!  Gideon Grey, nice to meet ya.”  Duke bobbled a little from the firm shake and withdrew his paw finally.  He didn’t _seem_ like a complete and unmitigated jerk, at least.  At least now he had a last name to go with the vixen as well.  It even seemed kind of refined.

 

“Are you staying long?  How did the presentation go?” Vivienne asked.

 

“Aww, you know how those things are,” he chuckled in a good natured tone, “Mostly mammals goin’ there for the freebies and then they run off with their buddies to the bar.  I got the signatures I needed, so it’s a deal.  That was already a shore thing.”  Vivienne applauded, jumping up and down adorably.  Gideon chuckled at her exuberant reaction.  “I ain’t stayin’ though, Sharla’s got an open house at her school tonight and she’s expectin’ a mess o’ pies.  Yew know how it is.” 

 

Vivienne nodded and followed Gideon outside again, talking to him about this or that.  Duke didn’t see a need to eavesdrop on them.  Sharla must have been the tail he’d bound himself to in the city.  Duke’s grumpiness suddenly waned as he became aware of a new smell, stronger even than the primer, and certainly more heavenly.  What in the world was that?  After a while, a cheerful-looking vixen returned.  At least she was not visibly unhappy with her son.  Maybe he wasn’t that bad.  He lost his dad at a young age, after all.  That had to be tough.  The larger male fox definitely looked like he probably took after his dad though.  Especially the eyes.  Vivienne’s kind emerald eyes were keen and bright.  They were familiar somehow too, like he’d seen them in a movie or on TV.  She had the look of a star when he met her, after all.

 

He was pulled from that train of thought as the vixen opened up the little tray that Gideon had brought in.  Underneath was an assortment of fresh-baked tarts.  That was the source of the epic orchestral melody playing out in his sinuses. 

 

“You will be eating some of these,” Vivienne commanded.

 

“If you insist, lady,” Duke exhaled with a broad grin.  There was no need to say that as an order.  He put an apple one in his mouth and immediately regretted that anything else would ever follow it.  The eggs were nearly forgotten.  The weasel hardly ever ate sweets in the first place, and here he was fighting with himself not to leave his kind employer with nothing.

 

“You like them?”  Her tone was hopeful.

 

“I’ve ain’t the thievin’ type,” he said, disregarding his past, “…but you’d be a fool to leave me alone with these,” he laughed, making for a playful compliment.  Vivienne chuckled loudly at that.

 

“Did you make these?” Duke asked, pushing another one in his mouth.  Lemon.  He loved lemon in general, but this one was like the difference between a lemon left out on the sidewalk for a month and one that was being groomed for some kind of ‘best lemon’ show.  It was incredible.  The pastry that went with it complimented it so well, too.  It was airy, buttery, and delicate.  About any tart Duke had ever eaten was chewy and heavily sweet and sugary.  This was a different experience entirely.

 

The lady fox grinned and nodded gladly.  “I didn’t make that specific batch, but I can make them, yes.”

 

Duke took a sip of water and sighed happily.  “You should be sellin’ that!  You’d have mammals lined up down tha block!”  Duke didn’t even try to hide his enthusiasm.  It was a really unexpected treat.

 

“Those, and other treats are exactly what I will be selling here,” Viv said with a broad grin.  Duke cheered.  This place would definitely get some business, his own among it if he got on his feet well enough. 

 

“So it’ll be a little bakery then?  First one?” he asked.

 

Vivienne answered casually, “No, there’s another, the parent company, in Bunnyburrow.  That’s where the fruit comes from.  It’s very popular there.  Folks come in from the surrounding counties, even on bikes if they have to.  We got some of it up in New Reynard for a few special events and I saw a good opportunity.”

 

“Damn right that’s a good opportunity!” Duke cried, then covered his little muzzle, feeling a little crass.

 

“Damn right.” Vivienne agreed with a nod, obviously not offended.  They both picked up a tart, dinked them together in a champagne-glass fashion, and enjoyed them.  They saved the rest for later so as not to spoil their stomachs on sweet treats before resuming their task.  Next came the painting.  It was a little more complicated than the primer because coverage and evenness counted considerably more, but it didn’t really take too much longer.  Still, Duke realized, as the sun sank lower behind the buildings across the street, that he was going to get his fondest wish as of that moment.

 

It looked like it was going to be at least another day of painting.  He deeply hoped that she would need him again, but with how capable she was with painting already, he was surprised she needed him to begin with.  Vivienne appeared to notice how low the sun was in the sky as well, able to see it glinting through the tall shop windows.

 

“Well, I suspect we won’t get much more done today,” she said with an aching sort of stretch.  “You know what I’m gonna ask, don’t you?” she inquired with a very forcefully sweet smile.

 

“Yeah, I kin work tomorrow,” Duke said with a playful eye-roll.  “You ain’t gotta cook breakfast or nothin’ if ya don’t want to, but I can promise you won’t be throwin’ it out if you do,” he added with a laugh.

 

“Duly noted!” Vivienne chimed.  She took out her pocketbook and drew out a small stack of bills.  Twenties.  She handed Duke a hundred dollars.

 

“Oh, you don’t gotta…” he stammered.  “I mean… It’s ain’t that big a job.”

 

“That’s what it’s worth to me, and I’m doing the same job, so that’s what I say it’s worth.” Vivienne said sternly.  It was the first really firm tone Duke had heard her use, and it gave him the impression that he’d be a fool to argue with her.  He put the money in his pocket.  He would avoid overeating again so that he didn’t more or less die in his box again.  He’d not be so lucky being late more than once.

 

“Thank you very much, Mrs. Gr-…” he started to say, but she cut him off.

 

“I do have another favor to ask of you…” she said.  Any time someone said something like that to Duke right after giving him anything, it was cause for alarm.  He knew better than to completely trust a fox, and his whole body tensed up.  She was so kind and genuine.  He only hoped that she didn’t need him to physically hurt someone.  He smiled weakly and nodded to her.

 

“Sure, whaddaya need, Viv?” he asked.  For how kind she’d been, he’d do it, anything short of physical harm.

 

Vivienne sounded a little uncertain as she spoke.  “I hate to ask this and it’s a little odd but, it would put my mind at ease a bit.”  Duke widened his eyes.  She was tiptoeing around it.  This was gonna be rough.

 

Duke sucked in a breath, and went with as amicable a reply as his tortured nerves would allow.  “Nah, it’s okay, Viv, you’ve been great, helpin’ you out some more ain’t gonna hurt my feelings,” he offered nervously.

 

Vivienne took a breath as well and stated, “So, we need to let the paint dry up nice, but I want to keep the air moving in here or it will be intolerable by the time we get back in the morning.  Originally I was going to stay the night in the office-area upstairs.  I haven’t really taken you up there yet, but there is one,” she said softly.  Duke slowly nodded, unsure of where she was going with this.  “I wanted to know if you’d be willing to stay instead.  I’ve got a cot set up in there.  I’m… worried about the repair they did to my oven.  I don’t wanna leave that alone overnight.”  Duke looked at her silently.  She had no idea he was homeless.  This wasn’t a favor to her; this was a favor to him!

 

“Sure, I can do dat,” he said, masking his actual happiness at the task, “Can I grab some dinner real quick-like and bring it back before the lock-in?” he asked.  Vivienne reached into her purse and took out the two keys to the place.  She separated them and gave one to Duke.

 

“Oh, that’s fine Duke!  Take your time, eat, and relax.  Just make sure you don’t leave the place empty for long.”  The lady fox picked up the tray she had brought breakfast in, but left the wonderful tarts for her new caretaker to enjoy in the night.  Duke watched her, bewildered as he clutched the key in his little paw.  While _he_ had been very untrusting originally of Vivienne just because she was a fox, she trusted him enough to leave him with the keys to her business.  It wasn’t like there was much there that was valuable, but it felt entirely undeserved.  Still, the money she paid felt like too much for what he’d done, so staying the night to watch the shop _really_ wasn’t too much to ask.  It was okay that she didn’t understand that it was also likely to be a dramatic improvement in sleeping arrangement for her hired worker.

 

Vivienne thanked Duke again for his help with painting, and promised she would be around closer to nine in the morning.  With that, she headed out.  Duke looked around the empty, paint-scented shop as the sun sank low in the sky.  His luck stood by him another full day.  He cautiously went out the door, locking it behind him, and got some fast food.  He brought it back and enjoyed it at the little table quietly, reflecting over all that was happening.  It was temporary, sure.  He knew that.  But, he really needed a break from the awful luck he’d been having.

 

Duke considered staying up through the night once the first coat dried and surprising the lady fox by completing the job and having it ready for her in the morning.  The only thing that prevented it was that he was honestly enjoying the company.  It was nice to just have someone he could talk to.  He felt a little silly for it, but she had such a motherly tone about her.  He really did miss his own mom.  Sure, Viv was a fox, but that just didn’t even matter anymore.  The feeling was the same.  She cared.  At least, she certainly appeared to.  As he stared into the dark, empty quiet of the shop, he just could not understand _why_ she cared.  It made no sense. 

 

That was the only matter causing him any hesitation… any concern or worry.  He had every reason to enjoy the treatment, the good fortune, the money and the place to stay.  The problem to him was that she had no _reason_ to give him any of those things over someone else.  A friend of her son’s, someone in his girl’s family, anyone but a strange weasel she met in a low-end diner on his last pennies.  Deep down inside he expected that the other shoe would drop, but he could not deny himself the enjoyment of his good fortune while he had it.  It had been so long.  He would just enjoy this little break.

 

Duke walked up the narrow stairs to the office space above.  Another surprise waited for him there.  He had expected to find a bare office with perhaps a desk and a little cloth military-style fold-up cot in the corner.  Instead what he found was the sort of cot one might request in a hotel.  The mattress was not very thick, but it was certainly comfortable, particularly because it was made for a mammal nearly twice his size.  It boasted clean sheets and a nice, heavy quilt.  There was a fan on the desk for white noise and a little radio sitting beside it.  It was absolutely no less cozy than he’d have been in his apartment.

 

“Okay, universe…” Duke said as he moved over to the cot and sat on it.  “What gives?  Am I dyin’?  Is that it?”  He got back up and turned on the radio.  Whatever station is was set to was in the process of playing an old jazz tune.  It was a lovely, slow song.  “Hello, whatever station you are.  We’re gonna be buddies tonight.”  He patted his full tummy and sat down once again on the cot. 

 

Duke then stretched out on it and felt a protest of aches and pains in muscles worked pretty hard through the course of the day.  It had been a while since he’d toiled quite like that.  It was a strange kind of ache, however.  He didn’t feel unhappy about being sore, which would have made sense.  He relished it.  He worked hard and was rewarded.  Finally, it felt like he was getting out of life every bit of what he was putting into it.  Maybe the payback the universe had in mind for him was how much it was going to suck when this was all over, but right then, it didn’t matter.

 

The tired little mammal just smiled, the soulful tune playing on the radio muted slightly by the hum of the fan as wind wafted through the open windows of the office.  For tonight, it was his place, and he was well fed and comfortable.  While he still had that nagging suspicion in the back of his mind that there was something he didn’t know about that was responsible for this turn of events, he was not in a position to fret so much as he was in a position to sleep.

 

He thought back to the crazy incident that brought him to this point.  The one thing he did that left him with the determined intention of changing his life was something he thought about almost every night before he slept.  He felt like it had been a curse this whole time.  However, as he began to move forward once again, after so long tumbling backwards, he blamed foxes in general just a little less.  Duke found himself hoping that he was right about his most recent choices, and that they would not be all for nothing.  He now had enough money to get a booth rented at the flea market.  He just needed to get some cheap merchandise. A day or two more of this good fortune and he’d be in business.

 

Duke looked at the stucco ceiling above.  He called out again silently to that dark, scary universe.  He asked, if it would not be too much, just to give him a couple more days in the service of this kind lady fox.  It wasn’t for him, right?  She would be happy to know he got back on his feet because of her.  That was fair.  It wasn’t selfish to ask.  He could ask for that, right?  He closed his large eyes slowly to the next slow, meandering jazz tune and sleep claim him contentedly.


	3. Past and Purpose

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some mighty nice feels ya'll got there... Be a shame if somethin' were to... happen to them.

 

**The Duke of Absolution**

_ Chapter 3:  Past and Purpose _

 

 

 

Duke had to admit, the place was already looking a lot better just with the first coat of paint.  It had been run down pretty badly even before the fire, but his work was certainly restorative.  While he was painting downstairs, Vivienne spent some time upstairs cleaning the carpet in the office.  There was also what was likely a file room or something across from that which needed work.  The weasel understood why she was doing it.  After having a big breakfast before coming in, Viv could not bear the paint fumes right away.  That was fine.  Duke had helped himself to a couple of remaining tarts and he was ready to go.  Vivienne left her phone downstairs to play music as he worked.  It was a really pleasant start to the morning, even with aching muscles unaccustomed to actual labor anymore.

 

He had slept better that night than he had in longer than he’d been out of his apartment.  The dread of being homeless had kept him up many nights even before it actually became a reality.  Suddenly being out of the elements, safe from someone just picking up his box and pitching it angrily into a bin or something was immensely comforting.  The quilt that had been left was a particular comfort.  It wasn’t cold enough, even with the windows open, to need it, but the weight of it made him feel like a kit again.  It was uniquely comfortable.  As he woke, pulling it tighter against him, he pondered using part of his earnings to buy it from the older fox lady.  She’d be willing to part with it surely, but the smaller mammal dismissed the thought because he couldn’t bear the thought of it being ruined by the rain.  Maybe he could ask when he got a place again.  It felt odd to feel attached to it at all.  He could buy one from a store but somehow he couldn’t imagine it to be as nice as that one. 

 

When Vivienne had arrived at nine, she brought him coffee which he enjoyed for a while before they got started.  They spoke briefly about which rooms they were going to work on, how they intended to do the trim, and whether or not they would attempt to paint outside, as it looked like they might have rain.  Finally, they began to work and Duke found himself wondering if maybe he might get hired on as a temporary contractor doing this sort of work.  He doubted it, given his record.  It was a shame; he really kind of liked it.   

 

As he worked on the baseboard trim, Vivienne’s phone rang.  Duke padded over to it, wiping his paws off on a cloth before checking to see who was calling.  The name Gideon flashed on the screen.  The ring tone for that name sounded like something he’d expect to hear hear right before they piled the kits into a wagon for a hay-ride.  Given the hefty fox’s accent, Duke guessed it was appropriate.  He went ahead and picked up the phone as he didn’t want Gid to have to worry, if indeed he were capable of that while letting his mom build a damned store with a stranger in the city.

 

“Duke answerin’ for Vivienne, how can I help ya?” he asked with as cheerful and non-threatening a tone as he could manage.

 

“Ah-heheh!  Wow, already got yew answerin’ phones an’ stuff!  Ah like that!” came the huffing laugh from Gideon on the other end of the line.

 

“Well, yeah, anything I can do to help, your ma’s been right nice.  I appreciate it,” Duke explained.  He wanted to make sure Gideon didn’t worry about the kind lady fox in the care of a weasel.  While he didn’t care for foxes that much, he knew the reputation his own kind had.

 

“Ma?” he ressponded in a confused tone.  “Who are… Oh!  Ah, man, Ah _wish_!”  He burst out in laughter on the other end of the line.

 

Duke recoiled and half-whispered, “Oh!  She’s not?  Sorry, just… I knew she had a son and you’re the only fox helpin’ her out, so I just…” 

 

Gideon chuckled a bit more and replied, “Naw, she ain’t, but I bet I’d have been a real happy kit.  Yeah, I actually own the company she’s opening that thar fran-chise for.  Gideon’s Real Good Baked Stuff?”  Duke furrowed his brow at that, small tail flitting about.  That had to be one of the least catchy names for a shop he’d ever heard.  The pastries would really be doing the heavy lifting here.

 

Duke then flinched slightly, saying hastily, “Wait, you baked th’ tarts yesterday?”

 

“Yep!  They’re even better really fresh, I drove them out from Bunnyburrow.  That’s where the main shop is,” he explained.

 

“You are a _hero_ Gideon Grey,” Duke laughed.

 

“Glad to be of service!” he stated.

 

Duke smiled, liking the jovial attitude of this fox as much as he liked the fact that he was not Vivienne’s increasingly worthless unnamed son.  “Nah, It’s for me to be of service now.  You were lookin’ for Mrs. G- wait.  I guess that’s not her name.  Viv?  She’s upstairs doin’ the office.  I can fetch her for ya.”

 

The boisterously friendly fox regained his composure.  “Yeah, I need to schedule a delivery with her, if ya don’t mind.”  As he said that, Viv actually arrived downstairs, perhaps having heard Duke talking to someone.

 

“Who’s on the phone?” she asked sweetly, scaring the hell out of the weasel, who nearly dropped the darned thing.  With the concrete floor that would have been a disaster.

 

“Viv, sorry, it’s schedule, he wanted to Gid something with you,” the weasel blurted. He thrust out the phone to her defensively, as if it would poison him.  Suddenly, he was painfully aware of how rude it might seem that he was answering her calls on her personal phone.  Vivienne did not seem angry, however, just taking the phone and speaking pleasantly to the fox that Duke had just discovered was her boss.  They spoke pretty briefly, with Vivienne giving him the square footage downstairs and telling him that she had things under control so he didn’t need to hire anyone else.  She then assured him that their success was going to be mutual and no thanks had been needed.  Duke felt like maybe Vivienne was the perfect fox for someone to enter in a business partnership with.  She had a sweet and motherly personality.  It was easy to get along with her and one was inclined to automatically treat her with respect.  Finally, the vixen got off the phone, putting it back down on the table where it had been when Duke answered it.

 

Duke rubbed the back of his head nervously.  “Uh, sorry I answered yer phone like that.  I didn’t think I could get it up to ya in time, and I thought that maybe it was important ‘cause of who was callin’.”  He knew he’d overstepped and wanted to make sure Vivienne understood his logic in it.

 

“It’s alright, Duke, I appreciate it,” Vivienne said warmly.  The weasel breathed an inward sigh of relief.

 

“Would you be able to help me with a couple of file cabinets upstairs?” she asked.

 

Duke tensed up a little.  This was something he might not be as useful for.  “Not sure how much back I can really put into it, all things considered, but I’ll sure try,” he offered.

 

“No, it’s not lifting.” Viv offered with a smile, “They are both on wheels so I can push them easily enough.  They’re just bigger than me and I can’t see where I’m going with them.  I wanna move them out of the file room and put them into the office.  I don’t want to have to go to another room every time I want to put away order sheets and billing invoices.” Duke found himself automatically following the vixen as she strode up the stairs. 

 

Once there he helped her move the tall, narrow cabinets on casters into the office, one on either side of the desk that had been pushed in front of the window to overlook the somewhat busy lunch-time street below.  Duke helped her get the cabinets perfectly where she wanted them and nodded, feeling like the place looked pretty cozy for an office.  He noticed that the cot had been moved into the other room where the cabinets had been.  It made sense to have it out of the way while she was cleaning the carpet. 

 

Vivienne had brought a little portable carpet cleaner with her so the scent of mildew was completely gone.  It felt more and more like a real place of business.  The office didn’t really need new paint, it seemed to have been painted fairly recently and the green walls with white trim were not visible to customers so it didn’t affect the brand or anything.  As Duke admired the cleaning job Vivienne had done, she sat down in the office chair.

 

“So…” the vixen’s tone had the feel of someone leading into some small talk because they needed a little break.  Duke leaned against a file cabinet, listening.  He’d certainly accommodate.  “I know from what you’ve told me that you aren’t proud of where you’ve been, but you are trying now, in what, your thirties?  I really can see that you’re trying to get your life straight.  Why now?  Did something happen?  Was it your third brush with the big house?” she asked.

 

Duke sighed deeply.  Okay, now he felt less like small talk.  This was not even close to small talk.  He slowly slid down to the floor without even realizing it.  Vivienne looked down at him with some concern, ears back, eyes seeming regretful for having brought it up.

 

The weasel pinched the bridge of his slender little snout and sighed, “It’s a long story and some of it ain’t gonna make you like me more, and some of it ain’t even gonna be believable.”

 

“Do you suspect I’m the unforgiving type, Duke?” inquired Vivienne.  Her voice sounded very calm and soothing.  She had such a maternal feel to her that Duke felt like she could forgive anything.  He put his head back against the cabinet and sighed again.  She continued speaking in that tender, doting tone.  “You don’t have to tell me about it if you really don’t want to, but I think if you are serious about what you are doing with your life, getting to talk to someone about it will help steel your resolve.  Things are obviously hard right now, so I think maybe it could help.”  The weasel gazed back up at the caring vixen and then down at his knees, sitting there with his legs crossed.  She was right.  He hadn’t spoken any of it out loud.  He had decided, but he’d never actually said it, even just to himself.

 

“Were you in Zootopia for the Savage Mammal incidents?” he asked, heart heavy about where he chose to begin.

 

“Yes.  I left right after,” Vivienne answered.

 

“Well, you know what it turned out was causing it, right?” Duke inquired, feeling a sense of deepening dread.  He’d know real shortly just how forgiving this lady fox would be.

 

“Flowers.  Oh, you didn’t get caught smuggling those after the ban, did you?” she added in a hushed tone, a bit of exasperation in her voice.  Duke braced himself.  It was worse.

 

“No, I was the one stealin’ ‘em and givin’ em to Bellwether’s goons when the attacks was goin’ on.  It’s partly my fault all those mammals got hurt.  That’s what I meant by sayin’ I never hurt no one _intentionally_.”  The weight of that was painful to bear, but it felt somehow better to say it.  No one he associated with directly really knew he was involved in any way.

 

“You… were _providing_ those?” she inquired incredulously.  “Oh my God… did you know what they were being used for?”  Duke cringed inwardly.  She sounded afraid.

 

“I didn’t know nothin’, I promise.  I didn’t find out ‘till I got mixed up with that bunny cop who figured I was movin’ them.  I didn’t even believe ‘em about all that ‘till it actually hit the news and Bellwether got thrown in the slammer.”  Duke sighed again.  Like that was much help.  A _lot_ of mammals got hurt and the horrified weasel was at the center of it.  He gazed up sorrowfully at Viv.  “I was lookin’ at being in jail as long as the rest of them with that nutty sheep and her hench-sweaters.  I felt like that’s what I deserved too.  Sold out my own kind.  I knew one of the mammals that got tagged.”

 

Vivienne reached down and put a paw on Duke’s shoulder.  It was so warm.  He couldn’t even look up at her.  She spoke softly.  “Duke, if you say you didn’t know, then I believe you.  A lot of mammals fell for that sheep and her dumb plan.  A lot of really good mammals were damaged by that.”

 

“I bet you’da never met me if it got left like it was, but… but that crazy bunny cop _helped_ me.  She vouched for me.  Said I didn’t know what they was for, and I got a heavily reduced set of charges and partly commuted sentence for testifyin’ against tha real monsters in that mess.”  Vivienne nodded at that.

 

“So that’s what scared you straight, then?” she asked.  “…Realizing just how deep you got into it without even doing something that bad?”  She then sat up straighter.  “I mean, stealing is awful, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not… that.”  The tone of her final word was delivered as if with a mouth full of bile.

 

Duke closed his eyes and pulled his knees up to his chest, putting his chin on his knees.  “Actually, no, but it’s… part of it all.  See… if anything, _that_ experience made me more resolute as a thief and a cheat,” he murmured shamefully.

 

“What?  How?” she demanded softly.

 

“It’s hard to explain to someone who ain’t been there… but when you’re dirty, you feel it.  You _know_ it.  It don’t come off.  You can’t pretend you’re not filthy.  After that, I didn’t think I could get any dirtier, right?  Whatever I did to live after all that… stealing, lyin, all that stuff… it felt like nothin’.  I went back to my usual tricks, sellin’ stuff I knew was hot, fake, or busted.  Sure, I hated it, but not as much as I did myself for what I did before that.  It just felt like I was livin’ in the dirt life was givin’ me and that was fine.”

 

Vivienne interjected, “Duke, it wasn’t your fault, it was Blow-wether…”

 

Duke interrupted, “Nah, I’m not askin’ to deflect blame, but I gotta explain all of it for it to make sense.”

 

“Just… You _can’t_ let that be…” Vivienne started again, but the weasel held up a little paw, shaking his head.  She let him continue.

 

“It was a bad place.  I didn’t feel like I hated myself, it was worse.  I didn’t _care_.  I absolutely didn’t care.  I was lucky not to be rotting in a cell, but I felt I belonged nowhere else.  I think part of me kept at the trade because I wanted t’ go back where I thought I belonged.”  Vivienne listened to him as he explained that, waiting, it seemed, for a chance to actually talk.

 

“But… then what made you change all that?” she finally asked.

 

“Do you remember… I don’t know… four, five months ago, that fox involved in the Darmaw mess?  The one that Officer Hopps brought back out from under the city?” Duke questioned.  Vivienne looked away rather suddenly, ears back.  Duke shook his head quickly.  “Oh!  No, no, I wasn’t involved in that mess. But… and here’s the part you might not believe, Viv…”  She regarded him again, her eyes oddly intense.  Duke took a breath.  “I used ta work for tha city.  Pipe-maintenance and all.  I told you about that job.  Anyway, so I knew, a bit after they said where he’d gone missin’… where he probably ended up.  A couple days into it I knew.  I figured that since there ain’t no way he survived sumthin’ like that, they was going through the motions with the city t’ get access to the place down there.  It was restricted and dangerous.  None a’ my business to get involved in all that, even though I owed my freedom to Hopps vouchin’ for me during the Bellwether trials.  But then they said on the news they was gonna stop lookin’.”  Vivienne sucked in a deep breath, glancing away again.

 

“And you told the police where to find him?” The vixen asked in a wavering tone.  Duke gritted his teeth a little.  She was a mother.  Of course she’d be emotional about the life of a young fox lost under the city like that.  He shook his head sadly.

 

“I didn’t.  And I think maybe it’s actually good I didn’t.  They’d have taken another _week_ or more to get in there I bet.  That’s just how… that whole bureaucracy works.”  He inhaled again, looking down.  “I hung out near where it all went down.  I figured someone would come there.  Whoever came there would have been his friend, not just some pencil pusher or city management person.  It’d a been someone who woulda lit a fire under them to get him out of there.  Wilde ain’t been the best nut all his life, but no one deserves to be where he was.  I know what that place is.  I’ve been down there.”  Vivienne nodded slowly.

 

“What happened?  Someone Nick knew showed up, didn’t they?” she begged, voice stressed as if she were emotionally restraining herself.

 

“Flopsy… ah… Officer Hopps showed up there,” Duke explained slowly.  “She was upset.  I understood of course.  They was real close, her and that fox.”  The weasel looked up, seeing that Vivienne was peering intensely at him.  Well, she wasn’t dismissing what he was telling her right out.  That was helpful at least.

 

“And you told her… and she just… took matters into her own paws.”  Vivienne said the next part to make it clear she understood where that was going.  “Did you see the video of her kicking a hole in the road?  You couldn’t have told anyone else and got _that_ result.”  The vixen sat up straighter.  “And that … is what led you to changing your life?”  Duke smiled at that.  She really was interested in this.  It wasn’t small talk to her at all.  He was glad.  He then sighed slowly, feeling a little more comfortable talking to her about all of that.  He felt like maybe she was right.  He needed to tell this to someone.

 

“Yeah, so… She didn’t even give it 12 hours.  She was diggin’ him out, thinkin’ she was gonna find what I told her she’d find.  She was doing a recovery, not a rescue.  I went to bed that night feelin’ a little better that I told her, of course.  What else could I do?  Had a big drink to ‘em both, and went to bed.”  Vivienne had glanced away again, fighting her emotions again.  Duke hadn’t really seen this side of a fox before.  It didn’t surprise him with this one at least.

 

“Go on…” she insisted, looking back, eyes misty as she turned her attention back to him.  She had gotten herself under control.

 

Duke sucked in a big breath and continued with what was the most difficult part for him to actually say.  “I woke up th’ next mornin’ and found that I left th’ TV on.  The news was on, even though it was like… ten in the morning.  And then I heard his name.  I sat up real quick-like.  Were they announcing he got found already?  That was fast.  And then… then they said it.”  Duke was a little startled when his own voice cracked.  He was trying not to be emotional about this, but the vixen’s reactions were greatly magnifying the intensity of what all of this actually meant to the weasel.  The reason he changed.  Vivienne sniffled.  Duke couldn’t bring himself to look up.  It really mattered to her.  It made the smaller mammal care even more about her.  She was so caring.  It wasn’t weird anymore that she cared about him.  There was nothing suspicious about it anymore.  Viv was a very caring, loving mother fox.

 

“Sorry, Go on…” she prodded softly, a little hitch in her voice.

 

“They… They said the word alive.  I thought they was talkin’ about something else, first. Maybe I just thought dey gave his name.  I stood up, since I fell asleep on the couch.  Then dey showed his stupid smiling mug beside Fabienne Growley’s big cryin’ head.  I turned up the TV.  Way up.  I wasn’t hearin’ it right. I couldn’t be.  Dey started talkin’ about the video they ain’t never gonna show on the TV, about th’ bunny bringing him up through th’ street…  They said they was both in the hospital, and not much else was known.  But when they announced the two of ‘em was both in the hospital… I knew I ain’t misheard it.”  His voice cracked again, and he pushed his sleeve up to his big eyes and dabbed them dry.  He felt silly for how worked up he was getting, but he also felt like, with Viv, it was okay.  “That fox was alive.  He was alive because of what _I_ did.  And no one knew.”  Duke looked at the floor as he explained this.

 

Vivienne spoke again, this time in nearly a whisper.  “So she’d _never_ have found him without you, and even if they figured it out, they might not have gotten in there in time.  He would have died…  And that moved you?  Made you want to try to do something better?”  Duke glanced up at her, having to immediately look away.  Her cheeks were wet.  It was hard to see her cry, even if it was for a happy reason.  He sucked in a deep breath and decided to lay it all out on the table.  He wanted her to understand why he was serious about it.  He wanted to say it so he could hear himself say it too.

 

“Viv, have ya ever… cleaned your place so good that you didn’t even want to walk into the room?”  He sniffled again.  “Didn’t want… Didn’t wanna just… mess it up at all?”  She nodded a little, foxy paws clasped in front of her.  “It’s hard t’ really explain… but when they said he was alive, that he’d been saved, I just sat.  I couldn’t even get up off the couch.  Not for a long time.  I felt numb.  I felt like I was just lookin’ at pictures of nothin’.  Then I felt different.  I didn’t know how I felt.  But I felt, and it was… overwhelmin’.”

 

“Oh, I can’t even imagine…” Vivienne softly interjected through her paws cupping her slender muzzle. 

 

Duke shook his head, still gazing at the floor.  “I went… for a walk.  Everything felt different.  I felt the sunshine on my fur… I looked at little… little things that maybe I’d have ignored every day the rest o’ my life.  And I thought about it.  This was stuff that fox would have never seen again, but now he could.  The friends and family he had, they was crying.  I knew they would be.  I didn’t… just do this thing to him… or to the bunny cop.  I did it to _everybody_.  I saw the news still playin’ on the TV, the city reactin.  I heard every cop car in the city turn on their sirens.”  Vivienne squeaked, unable to restrain her emotions.  Duke wiped his eyes again, unable to prevent himself from sputtering a little either.  She was right.  He needed this.  He needed to say it.

 

“Duke, thank you so much for telling me this,” Viv whimpered, yanking his heartstrings harder.

 

Duke shook his head and pressed on.  He had to.  He really had to.  “For all the crap I took from people, I actually gave something back.  A big something.  And as I watched clouds pass in front of tha sun like I ain’t never seen that before I knew how I felt.  I felt completely clean.  None of that filth that made up my whole life remained.  I walked home.  I didn’t know what to do.  I figured I’d take a shower, wash the smell of booze off me to make me as clean as I felt.  Then I saw a box of goods I intended to sell.  And I got… mad.  I was so disgusted, just lookin’ at it.” 

 

“Oh my…” Vivienne whispered.

 

“I took that crap to the curb.  I was just… done.  I was clean.  I been doin’ this garbage lifestyle since I was like… _ten_.  And for the first time since I was old enough for it to even matter t’ me, my life was clean. I felt like I didn’t have to say nothin’ about it to no one.  It was my _absolution_.  I couldn’t go back.”  There was a long pause as the vixen seemed to be digesting that information.  Her tail was whipping back and forth frantically.  She had been right.  He felt a much stronger conviction to keep clean after telling her about it.  It was a great idea. 

 

“But… but you have it hard now, because of your past.  Getting a new start, I mean,” she stated, making it clear that she understood.

 

“Worse than you can imagine, I promise,” Duke sighed with disdain.

 

“If you told everyone what you did… wouldn’t that help?  I mean, people might give you a chance if…”

 

The weasel spoke up, gently interrupting.  “I didn’t want to be a part of that.  The city was brought together by it, and when it comes down to it, I waited like... a week before tellin’ anyone.  I ain’t a hero for it.  The fox an’ bunny know.  Maybe their friends know.  I have no idea.  No one’s ever approached me for questionin’ or nothing so I think Hopps held up her end of the deal like she said.  She left me out of the reports.  I could tell mammals about it, sure, but it wasn’t about me.  Wilde sacrificed himself for a _cub_.  Judy hospitalized herself digging up his body and ended up savin’ him while riskin her career and her _life_ for it.  It would be dumb to just say ‘yeah, I helped’ like it meant somethin’.”

 

“But it _does_ mean something!” Vivienne insisted.  “Especially to them!  You could ask _them_ for help.  I’m sure Judy knows about some program you could enroll in, some kind of help for reformed offenders…”  Duke peered up curiously at the fox as she used the bunny’s first name.  The vixen must really have been following the news during all that.  It was so dramatic, he could hardly blame her.  Viv was obviously a very empathetic soul, so it would have been something highly relevant to her interests.  With that empathy, she now seemed to be thinking of opening doors for him.  He smiled at her and shook his head.

 

“Nah, if I was gettin’ anything from this, I already got it.  The new and clean feelin’ I have was _everything_ t’ me… When the Nighthowler mess happened, I felt like my chances were through.  But then… I saw that maybe even if we _think_ it’s too late for things to ever be better… that’s when they can finally get better, y’know?  I mean, the fox got his second chance after they had his _funeral_.  It sure as heck ain’t too late for me.  I saw the sign.”  Duke stood up, smoothing his shirt a bit. 

 

The kind older lady fox smiled caringly at him.  “There’s no reason it has to be so hard on you.  There are folks who can _help_.” Vivienne stated.  “If it’s a pride thing, I get it… but you should be willing to…”

 

“What, get a hand out?”  Duke shook his head slowly, smiling.  Suddenly, heat and tingling spread upward through him as something kind of fell into place for him.  He looked up, more at the ceiling than at Vivienne as he spoke with a distant tone in his voice.  “You know… I saw that video… Th’ one that tha news wouldn’t show.  I don’t know that you ever saw it, but I think that’s what really provoked me.  I knew what I was gonna go through.  It wasn’t gonna be easy, like it wasn’t easy for th’ bunny… but it was my turn to dig my way up, see?  Even as I tell you all this, I guess I’m just now realizin’ it… that’s exactly what I’m doin’.  No one went down there and helped her.”  Duke actually shivered as the realization stamped itself more firmly in place in him.  Oh yeah, he definitely needed this conversation.  “On that video, I heard her scream and part of me screamed inside too.  Like… it just came up through th’ dirt and the dark, the anger… the ignorance, and it _screamed_.  And I heard it.  So uh… Yeah…”  He cleared this throat.  “Pretty dramatic… but here I am.  That’s how it’s been ever since.  Yeah, it’s hard, but I don’t for a minute regret it.”  Duke glanced back to Vivienne.  She had a paw cupped over her muzzle, cheeks glistening.  The little mammal inwardly cringed slightly, having perhaps over-played the dramatic sense of it, but it really was like that for him.  That’s what changed his life.

 

The fox finally spoke, her tone hushed.  “I think… I think that I really _do_ understand.  I know why you feel the way you do, Duke, and I want you to know… no matter how dirty you think you’ve been, I am _so_ proud of you for trying as hard as you have.”  Vivienne got out of the little office chair which spun quietly behind her as she stepped forward and, to Duke’s stunned surprise, wrapped her arms around him and pulled him in close. 

 

The last mammal to actually hug Duke had been his own mother.  It was so long ago that he could not even remember it.  And even then, he could not remember anyone ever telling him they were _proud_ of him.  The bottom seemed to fall out of him and he put his arms around Vivienne and hugged back, clinging to her the way he had just re-embraced his own convictions.

 

“Thank you…” he sniffed, suddenly ashamed of how emotional he allowed himself to become, but he felt safe there, in that single moment.  “…Thanks for listening to me tell you about it... Viv…for believing me.  I gotta admit… I was real close to giving up.  I was so tired.  I was… I didn’t think I could do it but…”  She hugged him tighter.

 

“I think you _can_ do it Duke, and I am glad I got to hear about it.  I’m always gonna cheer you on, so keep trying hard, okay?  Just… just don’t pass up chances that you get in life because you think you _have_ to do it alone, okay?  You can’t live like that.  Yeah, the bunny pulled her fox up through the street, but she didn’t carry him to the hospital.  When it’s time… you won’t be doing it all alone, alright?  You won’t be doing it alone forever.”  She finally let him go, and he leaned back against the file cabinet again with a thump, wiping his eyes.  He felt a lot better.  He felt more hopeful.  Even after he was done here and moved on, he would have the strength to do this.  It might never be a glamorous life, but he’d be glad he was living it.  This vixen had given him his fire back, and it burned brighter than it had the day of his absolution.

 

He sucked in a deep breath and unleashed his appreciation.  “Thank you Viv.  I’m glad I met you.  I… I hope that I get to see you again, after the painting’s done and all.  You’re a great gal, and I ain’t the most personable sort, but maybe if I say hi to you, maybe get one of them lemon tarts in me, I can keep fightin’.”  Duke chuckled at that.

 

“What, I’m not done with you yet, silly,” Vivienne said with a smirk.

 

“Well, if you really want a third coat of paint, I think we gotta go buy more of it!” Duke laughed.

 

“Actually, Gid’s gonna bring hardwood flooring for downstairs.  I could really use help with that.”  She smiled brightly at the weasel.  Duke widened his eyes.

 

“I can’t keep takin’ your money, I didn’t tell you all that so you’d…”

 

Vivienne interrupted, “…The flooring order was what Gideon was calling about earlier, Duke.  This isn’t about you.  I have to lay a floor in this place… with or without you.  I think you do a good job, and you are easy enough to work with.  Also, I would feel better if you stayed overnight again while the final coat of paint was drying.  You can think I’m helping you out all you want, but I hired you to _work_ , and you’re working your tail off.  Don’t go thinking you’re suddenly on the dole because you made me proud of what you’ve decided to be.  Paying a hired contractor for the work you are doing would be more expensive, and I’d probably end up with some fox-bashing egomaniac or something.  So, you wanna help?”  She grinned broadly.  “Gid’s bringing a pie.  A whole blueberry pie.”

 

The weasel slumped a little.  “I wanted to resist, I really did…”  Duke shook his head with a laugh, “… but a pie?  Even my newfound strength has its limits.  Sure, I’ll help out.”  Vivienne laughed as well, her tail whipping about excitedly.

 

“Well, before we get back to bustin’ our tails on cleaning and painting, let’s go grab some lunch.  Is that diner I met you at okay?  They have a good grilled cheese,” she explained.  Duke saluted.

 

“Aye-aye!  To the diner!”  He grinned at the vixen and fell into step behind her.  He could hardly believe how much better he actually felt about everything.  This was no longer about clinging to his newfound, likely short-lived luck.  He would make his own luck.  He had to.  And when this place opened, whether he could buy a tart or not, he’d visit this place every chance he got to help him remember who he was.

 


	4. Foxes and Gratitude

 

**The Duke of Absolution**

_ Chapter 4:  Foxes and Gratitude _

 

 

 

 

Duke discovered that laying the flooring for the shop was _not_ a small task.  He hadn’t done hardwood flooring before, but Vivienne’s elsewise useless son had apparently sent a very helpful link to a video on Ewetube for a slick tutorial on exactly how it was done.  It was a little awkward and arduous at first, but it got easier as they went.  In no more than half a day the two felt like professionals.  There was a lot of surface area to cover, and the areas where they met the walls or counters required the individual pieces to be trimmed down to the right size.  It was hard work and they needed to take breaks from it pretty frequently.  Duke didn’t mind, however. 

 

He didn’t mind because it resulted in the job taking three more days.  Each day they started at around nine and they worked together, talking, laughing, or listening to Vivienne’s phone.  Her son’s girlfriend had sent the motherly vixen a link to a spooky story podcast that they both enjoyed.  Around one o’clock each day, a two hour lunch at the diner where they met made for a fixed routine.  All of it made this busy, continuous work feel more like a rewarding hobby than a job.  Duke quietly lamented that it _would_ eventually be done, but the experience was something he knew he would keep with him.  As far as he was concerned, he would _always_ be able to visit and talk with Vivienne to recharge his conviction and resolve.

 

The time working with Viv also made it easier to trust the older fox because she represented something that Duke hadn’t experienced with many others.  She had permanence.  She didn’t behave differently after a day or so.  She never treated him with disrespect and never asked for more than he felt comfortable giving to her.  It was easy to feel almost like family around the lady fox, and while that originally alarmed the weasel a lot at first, it quickly became tolerable, and then slowly addictive.  He liked feeling like he had someone he could actually trust.  The fact that it was a fox was an irony not lost on him.  Viv let him buy lunch when they went out which made this feel less undeserved.  The fox would allow him to help back as much as he was willing to do.  It was easy to dedicate himself to working hard and giving it everything he had.

 

Over those long days of hard manual work, Duke discovered that what he wanted most of all at the end of this was not the money she was providing for his labor, but the continued company of her friendship when it was done.  And the longer he worked with her, the easier it was for the smaller mammal to feel this was assured.  Friendship wasn’t a high item on his list of must-haves even six months before.  Friends begged for favors.  Friends used you and then didn’t know you when they were done with you.  He saw that first-hand when he got out of ‘the racket’.  In less than a week, Duke had discovered that it was possible, sad though it may be, he’d not actually had friends in the past, and this… this is what it was supposed to be. 

 

And so he wanted that.  That was okay, wasn’t it?  When it was all done, he would just come back sometimes and talk and offer to help with this and that.  She didn’t even have to pay him.  That would be fine.  This hard journey started when the weasel decided that he could be more, and this was the first mammal who had believed he was.  He’d come back here.  Things would be better.

 

On the third day of flooring, he and Vivienne found themselves working on the edges of the room.  To get more coverage, they had started to hold off on this more time-consuming task.  They could not put it off any longer.  It resulted in more than a few miss-measured or otherwise bad pieces cast to the side, but there would likely be extra flooring anyway, so that wasn’t a big deal to Vivienne.  It promised to be another day of work to get the floor sealed and treated and waxed. 

 

The act of learning the technique from a publicly available video filled Duke with ideas to sustain him after this was over.  If he could just learn a trade from the internet like that, what was going to stop him from learning other valuable skills?  It might not be such a hard future for him after all.  As he was considering this encouraging epiphany, he mindlessly spread some flooring glue onto the next section of smooth concrete.  Vivienne spoke over the music-enhanced work session.

 

“Hey Duke… Wanna hear a joke?” she offered.

 

“Huh?  Sure, I’m game,” the weasel stated, sitting back a little to cut the pre-measured next bit of flooring.  He barely even understood what she’d asked as he was so suddenly shaken from his thoughts.  A joke?  She wanted to tell him a joke?  Yeah, regular friends did that stuff, didn’t they?  This felt normal.

 

“What would bears be in a world without bees?” she queried, pushing another carefully measured and cut little plank neatly into place.

 

Duke thought about it for a while.  In his younger days, he preferred to try to defuse jokes like they were bombs, delighting in guessing a punchline.  In this case he just couldn’t guess.  In his world, insults were the going ‘jokes’.  He shrugged and said in a meek tone, “There’d be no honey, so I would have to say… grumpy?  I dunno this one.”  He grinned at the fox, letting her drop the punchline.

 

“Ears!” she chimed brightly, muzzle open a little to let it sink in.

 

“What?” Duke responded, blinking.  Did he miss something?

 

“Ears.  Bears without ‘B’s are _ears_.”  Vivienne pulled her own ears with a smirk.  Duke groaned helplessly at the pun.  Secretly it delighted him that she was so full of innocent and harmless fun like that.  This was a world he was _glad_ to be in.  It wasn’t the gritty, filthy life he was used to.  There was something wholesome about it and it felt good to his new, clean existence.  She laughed brightly as he covered his face.

 

Duke shook his little head slowly.  “If it were anyone but you dat told dat joke, I’d have gone right out da window.”

 

“Sorry, I’ve felt funny all day,” she chuckled.  “I was testing out new recipes for cupcakes and wasn’t paying attention and took a huge drink of red food coloring.”

 

Duke glanced up at Vivienne with alarm as he watched her fix another bit of flooring into place.

 

“Are y’alright?” he inquired.  It was non-toxic, but it couldn’t be great to actually drink the stuff.  Wasn’t red supposed to be the carcinogenic one?

 

“I’m sure I’ll be fine… but I think I dyed a little on the inside,” she deadpanned.  Duke physically flinched.  No.  Absolutely not.  He folded over, forehead on the floor.

 

“It’s worse that you got me _after_ the first joke!” he groaned.

 

“Hand me the ruler, please,” the vixen asked pleasantly.  Duke did so, letting Vivienne measure her next piece of wood.

 

“I’m glad I got this one, it was the last 18 inch ruler they had, and I would never have found a replacement,” she casually murmured.

 

“Really?” Duke responded.  Then he inwardly cringed.  It was coming.  He knew it.  Her skill at loading this was established and he had to expect it.

 

“Yeah, the clerk said they couldn’t make 18 inch rulers any longer,” the fox predictably delivered.  Duke mock-sobbed into his arms.

 

“I can’t take it anymore,” he cried playfully. 

 

“You were the one who whined that he felt he’d gone un-pun-ished.  I’m trying to help you out!” Vivienne laughed.  Duke grinned under his arms.  He loved the sound of her laugh.  A bit after that, Vivienne put on their spooky podcast and they listened to that as they worked quietly.

 

The first of the typically two spooky stories shared was about the chance meeting of the ghost of a howling lupine light-house caretaker.  It supposedly occurred in the 1800’s.  The terrifying phantom always preceded a death in the port community that existed around the lighthouse.  It told of the ultimate destruction of the lighthouse by the fearful villagers. There was, a few months later, one last sighting of that howling ghost before a ship with gunpowder ran aground and exploded, laying waste to the whole village.  The second story was about a prison, also in the 1800’s, which had been plagued with horrifying acts of almost unheard of, genuine, full-on _predation_ that no one could seem to stop.  The acts went on for so long because no one could fathom that they were being committed by a deranged _musk deer_ who was only in the prison for money laundering.  As that podcast ended, the sun was sinking lower in the sky and Vivienne finally stood up, appreciating their handiwork. 

 

She said softly, “I think we’ll have the rest of this done in about an hour, then we will have to let it dry and get started on the finishing.  It’s looking so awesome!”  She squeaked excitedly.  This sound delighted Duke as he stood up as well, brushing off his knees as his temporary boss went and stood by the shop door.  It remained open while they worked to help air it out from the scent of the flooring glue.

 

Duke walked over by Viv.  “It’s not been too hard, really.  Time consuming, but not real hard.  I think I got the hanga this,” Duke boasted proudly, with a curt nod.

 

Vivienne gazed out the door a while and then looked back to Duke.  “Oh… that podcast reminded me of something important.  Before I forget… tonight, when I leave, I want you to lock up and close the windows downstairs.  Don’t leave them open.  You can have the upstairs window open for air circulation, but not down here… for safety reasons.”  The vixen stated this pretty darkly.

 

“What?  Why?  Did something happen?” the weasel asked.

 

“Haven’t you been watching the news?” Vivienne inquired curiously.

 

“Only media I get recently comes from your phone,” the weasel offered meekly.  He hoped that didn’t give away his state of living.  Lots of folks didn’t have TV, right?  Not just the ones that also didn’t have homes. 

 

“Oh, yeah.” Vivienne said, appearing to feel silly.  She then shook her head and stated, “The city had the prison on full lock down yesterday evening.  It was a huge deal,” her tone was suddenly very serious and foreboding.  Duke widened his already bulging eyes.  No, he had certainly not heard about this.  He stood straighter.

 

“Oh my God.  What happened?” he replied, fidgeting a little.  Stuff like this was always more frightening to smaller mammals like him.  He suddenly worried that Vivienne might not be safe to take the bus and go back to her place alone.  Would it be silly for him to ask to escort her?  He’d be useless in a fight unless the older lady fox were to just swing him like a club at her attacker.

 

The fox answered, “The prison staff discovered, at some point yesterday, that…”  She suddenly glanced outside, looking concerned.  Duke backed into the shop a little.

 

“Yeah?” he murmured in a hushed tone.  He hoped his anxiousness did not look like cowardice, but there were some pretty twisted types in that prison.

 

“It uh… it turns out that shortly after they incarcerated Dawn Bellwether… nearly half the prison’s most violent offenders had been on the lamb,” she delivered with an impossibly straight face. 

 

Duke stared back, muzzle slightly parted, unable to breathe, eyes perfectly round in shock.  Did that… sweet, loving, motherly vixen… just tell him a _prison rape_ joke?!  A wicked grin spread over Vivienne’s features.

 

“Holy Sh-…” Duke started, but was interrupted by a voice from outside.

 

“Hey, Duke of Bootleg, izzat really you, man?  Long time no smell.”  The weasel looked up to see that a coyote and bobcat, both males, had wandered up to the door.  Vivienne turned and stepped back a little, seeming reasonably defensive about their sudden appearance at the front of the shop.  It was getting late, after all.  Duke, however, recognized them both.

 

“Mike Latrans… and you still runnin’ wit that worthless Rudy Spot-whatever,” he chuckled.

 

“Who you callin’ worthless, can-crusher?” asked the bobcat with a sneer.

 

The weasel deadpanned.  “I’m sorry, I was not aware you had developed a respectable portfolio.  Please accept my heartfelt apology, my esteemed former colleague,” Duke laughed.  Vivienne peered back and forth between them.  She relaxed a little, seeing that they were at least familiar to her employee.  Duke, however, was not relaxed.  He wanted them gone.  They were very much a part of his _old_ life and there was a reason it was ‘long-time-no-smell.’ 

 

“So, Duke…” Mike stepped forward a little.  “…we hear ya down on yer luck, livin’ out of a box.  Want some real work?”  The weasel’s heart froze.  No.  Not that.  Don’t tell Vivienne that!  He glanced at the vixen.  Her ears were back.  She looked unhappy.  Damn it.  Mike continued, “We did a - ah… recovery of some… salvage.  Bunches of it.  We need more paws to move it.”  Duke held stark-still.  He was _mortified_ that the coyote had said _any_ of that in front of Vivienne.  She didn’t need to know he was homeless, and he absolutely didn’t want her thinking he was still involved in likely criminal enterprises.  He was working hard for _her_.  Having her feel sorry for him or no longer trusting him would be absolutely ruinous!  He glanced back up at her and saw it.  She seemed genuinely pained.

 

He snapped his attention back to Mike.  “That ain’t none of your business, brush-wolf,” Duke growled.  He was going to put him on his heels and make him pound pavement.  This was Duke’s chance to prove to Viv that he wasn’t going to be that weasel anymore.  He would say goodbye to that life right in front of her.

 

The bobcat spoke next.  “C’mon, Duke, you diggin’ in the trash, and when you ain’t doin’ that… youse actually slavin’ for _foxes_.  You kin do better than that.”

 

Duke felt his blood boil as a sense of protectiveness fired up in him that he hadn’t felt since he was a kit dealing with playground bullies talking trash about his mother.  He snarled and growled back, “I ain’t interested, kitty cat.  And ain’t no problem workin’ for this here fox.  Watch it.”  How was he going to get rid of these guys?

 

“Uh oh, someone’s sweet on the vulpine species,” laughed Mike.  “I don’t blame you, I kinda fancy ‘em myself,” he crooned, walking right over to Vivienne.  Duke tightened all his muscles with rage as the tan-toned mammal actually brushed up against the older lady fox.  He walked in a tight circle around her with his tail trailing along her legs.  A little larger than Vivienne, Mike rumbled sultrily, “Crimson fur looks so lovely up close to coyote-gold, doesn’t it?  And… such a _snug_ fit too…”  The weasel clenched his paws into shaking fists as he felt his rage boil over.

 

Duke never would have predicted he would get killed defending the honor of a fox.  He then faltered a little as he glanced over and found that Vivienne did not even seem to be put off.  She actually smiled.  It was a deliciously smug sort of smile.  While he’d never seen her smile like that before, it felt suddenly so _completely_ familiar.  Unexpectedly, Viv moved her graceful paws up along Mike’s cheeks, brushing claw-tips lovingly through his fur.  It shocked Duke to see her boldness with the coyote stranger.  This one was so _obviously_ a criminal.  Did she not know he might be dangerous?  The bobcat backed up a little, grinning at the response Mike was getting.

 

Vivienne practically purred in a seductive tone, “I’m deeply flattered, Michael…” Her use of his name fairly widened his brown eyes, as it made the situation seem immediately more intimate, “… however, even if you found the _smallest_ fox you could, a sweet, petite lady fennec, I am sure beyond the shadow of a doubt… my sweet little puppy… that a _sourdough pretzel_ would be tied _tighter_ than that poor lass.”  She showed her teeth brightly as she delivered this last highly insulting line.  Mike jerked away.

 

Rudy exploded, literally dropping to his back on the sidewalk.  He laughed so hard he was actually blowing his coat out, shedding violently.  Soft feline fur blew in lose tumbling tufts along the curb.  For a cat, he could really howl with laughter.  Duke was frozen with shock.  The coyote and bobcat were not the only ones taken off guard by that.  Vivienne was obviously more than the sweet, refined fox that she appeared to be.  Mike was completely speechless for the moment.  He pinned his ears back with a grimace as he backpedaled a bit.  He obviously had _nothing_ to recover from that with.   

 

The coyote finally snapped his attention to the coughing, sputtering bobcat.  “Rudy, geeze, enough, it wasn’t even funny!” he growled.  He looked back to Duke.  “You lost any chance of _that_ score, weasel, so thank the fox lady.”

 

“Yeah, I don’t need yer score anyway.” Duke stated flatly.

 

Mike spit on the ground outside the shop.  “Oh yeah, you got _everything_ goin’ for ya here.  A few days of odd jobs for this retired bed-hopper and then you can look forward to winter inside yer box of balled up newspaper, butt-noodle.”  He sneered.  “Best hope no one tosses a lit cigarette into it as you sleep!” he laughed.  He then snarled at the nearly sobbing cat.  “Give it a rest, Rude, God!”

 

“Duke!” cried Rudy, struggling to actually crawl away from the vixen who was offering to help him get up.  “Duke!  Run, little guy!  She’s been Nighthowlered!  That fox is savage!  Aahhahahaha!”

 

Vivienne spoke up calmly.  “Just so you guys know, Duke won’t _need_ your job placement services anymore because he’s already gainfully employed.  Once this world-class bakery’s up and going, he will assist me with running the place.  You are both welcome for a free sample of the wonderful treats we will be providing.”  Duke felt his heart lurch.  Wait, what?  The fact that Viv had suddenly gone back to sweet grandmother fox mode was not the part that locked up his brain.  She intended to have him work after the shop was open?  Was that the plan?  Did she decide that before?  What was she doing?

 

“Oh sweet!  Free food!” cried Rudy, finally getting back onto his feet.

 

The coyote huffed.  “Seriously?  Duke going legit?  You’d trust this _felon_ in front of a cash register?  Here I had just started to think you was sharp, old gal!” he laughed.

 

Viv crossed her arms in front of her, standing defiantly in front of the larger canid.  “Think what you will, but you’re gonna need to find another weasel.  This one’s mine.”  Duke swayed considerably.  No.  This was wrong.  He couldn’t accept that from Vivienne.  No one’s luck was _that_ good, especially not his.  He would have to turn it down if she was serious.

 

Rudy laughed good-naturedly and shook his head.  “I know _I’ll_ be back for a sample, I don’t care what Mikey says.  See you around, cookie-critter!” he gave Duke the finger, turning and heading down the sidewalk, still laughing. 

 

Mike gave a sour face at Duke.  “Yeah man, good luck with alllll of that.”  He gesticulated at the shop and particularly the vixen with the barbed tongue.  “You deserve what workin’ with foxes gets ya, punk.”  Mike then strode off too, paws in his pockets.  “Shut up, dude!” he yelled ahead at the giggling Rudy.  “You tell anyone that crap and I swear…” 

 

Vivienne watched with that oddly familiar sly smirk on her face as the two younger but mentally outmatched mammals walked down the sidewalk.  They crossed in and out of long shadows cast by the buildings alongside it as the sun sank behind them.  Duke wasn’t really paying attention to them after a moment, however.  His wide eyes were fixed on Viv. 

 

He finally spoke, having to clear the air.  He had to know.  “Was you serious about it?” he asked softly.

 

“Oh yes.  If that boy was making any gal _happy_ right now, she’d not be letting him run around doing _that_ crap.” She said seriously.  Duke stared at her blankly and then blinked, shaking his head.

 

“Huh?  No, I mean… about workin’ here?  Are you serious?  We never talked about any a’ that.”  He was so thrown by the implied offer and its implications to him that he utterly dismissed the second off-color joke from sweet Vivienne in ten minutes.  She had to have been joking about the offer too, just to get under Mike’s hide.  That certainly made sense.  It made more sense than Duke suddenly being included in Vivienne’s real plans.

 

The fox immediately proved Duke’s wary assumption completely wrong.  “Of course I meant it.  I’m _not_ letting you go back to working with those guys!” she exclaimed, crossing her arms in front of her again gruffly.

 

Duke stared back with painfully wide eyes.  “I… I had no intention of it, but I can’t just… let you give me a position like that.  It’s not fair to someone who _ain’t_ been dumb and worked the better part of their life screwing things up!  I’m getting in the way of some mammal what _really_ deserves to come and work for you every day.”  Duke felt the pang of panic running through him.  He wanted this _so_ bad.  What was he doing?  But… it felt wrong.  He couldn’t have this.  She didn’t owe him anything.  She felt sorry for him.  He wasn’t worth this.  He would almost certainly hurt her business.  He could even cause her real trouble with some of his former colleagues.  Not all of them would be as jocular or forgiving as Mike and Rudy.  Keeping a former criminal in her shop would be nothing but trouble for a fox who deserved to succeed more than any mammal Duke had ever met.

 

Vivienne regarded the weasel a moment.  Her face was hard to read, ears back.  After watching him a moment, she spoke.  “What are you saying, Duke?  Do you really not want to work for a _fox_?” she asked.  He felt like someone dropped Tundra Town right on his heart.

 

“What?!” Duke practically shouted.  “No, it ain’t that!  It’s the opposite!  You shouldn’t have to work with a bottom feeder like me!  You gotta be one of the best mammals I ever met, and you can make this work like your own slice a’ heaven, Viv!  I’m just gonna foul it all up for ya!”

 

“You think you’ll empty my till, like Mike said?” she inquired casually, her eyes half-closed as she gazed at the smaller mammal.

 

Duke pulled his little ears back, pacing with stress.  “No, of course not!  I’d never even think of stealin’ from you, Viv!”  His heart ached.  She didn’t know how much trouble he was.  How hard he was to get along with.  But… he’d been getting along with her so well this past week.  Nothing had _ever_ seemed like a more attractive deal than to keep coming to work here.  Even if he had to work with the public and force himself to be sweet and kind like her, he would _do_ that.  But he _couldn’t_.  He might feel clean, but he _was_ dirty.  She knew what he was in the past.  He could move forward but it was never going to be just… not there.  Why would anyone be this nice to _him_?  It was confusing and, frankly, horrifying to him.

 

Vivienne walked away from the door, the weasel following her inside as she didn’t say anything for a moment.  As he entered, she turned back and closed the door, locking it.  It was perhaps in case the coyote returned with enough time to formulate a spicy comeback.  This conversation, Duke felt, was not to be interrupted. 

 

The vixen sat down on the counter, feet over the edge, calmly.  “Duke, you’re working very hard to leave the _old_ you behind and make a _real_ attempt at something different… but you aren’t going to succeed if you slam shut every door that opens for you.”

 

The weasel rubbed his face slowly.  How could he explain this without coming across as insulting in the face of her unrealistically kind and generous offer?  He sighed, “It ain’t about whether I deserve to find an open door, Viv.  It’s that I don’t want you feeling some kind of obligation just cause you know my story… like you gotta be the one openin’ and holdin’ doors like that!  I ain’t done nothin’ for it!  Yer still finding out crap about me,” he grunted, gesturing after the departed former companions.

 

“What, you mean that you’re homeless?” Vivienne asked flatly.

 

Duke winced.  “For example,” he agreed.

 

“I knew that already.  You _really_ think I wanted to sleep here?” she inquired.

 

“What?” murmured the weasel.

 

The expression on the lovely vixen’s face was hard and calm as she spoke, gazing intently into the smaller mammal’s eyes.  The spoke softly, “You can hate yourself all you like, Duke, but you don’t get to tell _me_ what I’m looking at.  I’m not a kit.  I know what I see standing there.  I know your past.  I know what you are now… what you want to be… And I know what you’re gonna be tomorrow.”  Vivienne jabbed a claw in the direction of the floor in the center of the shop.  “You’re gonna be the weasel pushing around a bucket of sealant with me and finishing this floor…  And if you really _want_ to, you can sell something that will earn you platitudes instead of _jail time_.” 

 

Duke’s mind was reeling.  How was he supposed to argue with her?  He didn’t _want_ to argue.  He wanted to just nod and be glad that he had a job.  Hell, she knew he was actually living in that office, not just guarding the place at night.  She was offering him a home too?  No.  Absolutely not.  He could not just take these things from her.  How _could_ she offer all of that to him?  Why?  He spent a hard full lifetime learning that mammals demanded equal return or better for everything they gave.  This didn’t square at all with the rest of his miserable existence!  Something was off.  It was completely off the rails.

 

Duke sighed bitterly.  “I just _can’t_ take this from you, Vivienne.  I know you maybe don’t understand, but for me to move forward… I can’t just take what I didn’t really earn.  Takin’ what I didn’t earn is how I messed myself up in the first place.  I ain’t done nothin’ so grand as t’ earn anything like... like this!”  He gave a flourish at the nicely painted, partly remodeled shop. 

 

Viv lowered her head, ears pinned back tight.  “You deserve a chance, Duke.  And no one’s giving you that chance unless they know you.  I know you, and I say you get this chance!” Vivienne insisted loudly, her tone more exasperated.  She hopped down off the counter.  “You can’t _possibly_ think I don’t feel like you earned it!  You saved a _life_ , Duke!  That’s worth something.  You gave _him_ a second chance, what did _he_ ever do to earn that from _you_?”  Her voice cracked.  Duke backed up a little, having not realized that the vixen would get so emotionally worked up about this.  He felt his strength in the argument fracture.  He could not denigrate himself if it wounded her to see it.  It was easy to hate himself.  He’d been doing it for so long.  But hurting this fox was something he immediately realized would be eternally unforgivable.

 

Duke uttered the only logic he could find left in his argument.  “Viv, if it were _Wilde_ askin…  If it were Wilde invitin’ me to work here… then I could see it.  But I ain’t given you no second chance like that.  I don’t understand why you think you’d owe me.  You don’t owe me nothin’.”  Duke felt tears well up in his own eyes.  It hurt.  Denying himself this chance while knowing it also made Vivienne unhappy actually hurt him.  Why did everything have to suck for everyone?

 

Vivienne turned away rather suddenly, paws at her sides, closed into fists.  There was a soft, heart-rending sniffle from her as her tail fell slowly to the floor like the setting sun.  Duke stood there feeling sick in agonizing silence for what felt like two full minutes.  She would hate him for this.  He was going to lose the only thing he’d greedily wanted to keep at the end of all of this. 

 

She finally spoke in a slow and careful monotone.  “You… You think you never gave me a second chance, Duke.  You gave me a second chance.”

 

Duke put a paw over his chest, trying hard to hold himself together.  He whispered, whiskers trembling, “What chance have I ever gave you, Viv?”

 

Vivienne turned around slowly, her wet eyes fixing on Dukes, face agonized before she blinked, tears falling down her cheeks.  It paralyzed the weasel.  She was suffering and he hadn’t even taken the job yet.  Before he could inwardly declare himself garbage, however, the vixen smiled genuinely.

 

She stated in a clear and gentle tone, “You gave me a second chance to have a _family_ when you told that bunny where to find my son.”

 

Duke furrowed his brow.  “What?  Lady, I don’t know your-…”  He then locked up, as he stared into those brilliant green eyes.  He knew those eyes.  This whole time they had felt so familiar, and in that half-second he finally connected exactly where he’d seen them. 

 

No. 

 

Absolutely not. 

 

This couldn’t be happening.  The real world didn’t work this way.  He was rooted in place with the level of disbelief that racked his tumbling mind as he stared into those eyes.  _His_ eyes.

 

Vivienne stood up straighter again, speaking carefully.  “You said if Wilde invited you to work here you could see it.  Well… I’m _Vivienne Wilde_ , and I’m inviting you.”

 

“Oh… my God.”  His ears rang with the rush of realization and the flood of emotions that thundered over him with it.  Vivienne wrapped her arms around herself and closed her eyes, tears spilling down as she leaned back against the counter and slowly sank down.  Her proud projection of herself crumbled and so did she.

 

“What did _I_ ever do for _you_ , Duke?  What did _I_ do to deserve _that_?” she asked, a pained squeak in her voice that squeezed the weasel’s heart.

 

And just like that it all squared.  The small mammal’s relatively small yet profound gesture had changed more lives than his and Judy’s.  It saved more than a hopeless fox cop I in a dark, nasty place.  He looked at the weeping older vixen on the floor of the shop he’d helped to rebuild.  The struggle of these painful last few months had been a thing he understood as the consequence of his former life, and he had accepted so completely that his ugly consequence was earned.  But he had ignored the simple truth that not every consequence was bad, and a _good_ consequence was still just as undeniably earned.  Sitting before him was a vixen who lost her son, and had him given back to her as a result of Duke’s actions.  He closed his eyes tight as he heard another heart-rending squeak from Vivienne.

 

What in the world was he supposed to do?

 

She knew.  She knew who he was.  He told her.  And she hadn’t said anything.

 

How long had she known?

 

Had she known who he was the whole time?

 

She made him tell her everything even though she knew it all.  And she told him nothing.  What was she trying to do?  Was she trying to give him something back?  He wasn’t asking for that, but knowing who she was… could he even refuse it?

 

“I’m sorry…” she whispered, snapping the weasel out of his turbulent thoughts.

 

“Hey…”  Duke approached with uneven steps, feeling his own cheeks wet with tears.  This entire moment was completely overwhelming to him, just as the news report revealing Wilde was alive had been.  He hugged the older fox, his little body shaking slightly as he struggled with coming to terms with exactly what all this was.  He whispered, “I didn’t actually save him, Viv.  That was all the bunny.  She nearly _died_ getting’ ‘im… not me.”

 

Vivienne embraced back, larger but gentle paws cupping over his back.  It was a strong hug.  She whimpered, “Duke, Judy’s already got the most precious thing I could _possibly_ give to her for what _she_ did.  _Gladly_ I gave her that, so you can _take the damned job_!”  Duke jerked at the louder exclamation.

 

“And I _want_ to, Viv, I do!  But… I…” he cried freely.  He was helpless against this.  He already wanted what she was offering so damned badly, and he accepted then and there that she knew he really wanted it, and she would keep viciously tearing up any reason he could give her to deny himself what he genuinely needed.  He sighed, still shaking.  “You coulda _told_ me, Viv!  Why didn’t you _tell_ me any of this?”  He leaned back to look at his suddenly full time employer.

 

“Do you really need me to answer that?” the fox asked, composing herself just a little.  Duke reflected on that and then shook his head.  He’d have bolted and he knew it.  It would have been too much.  He’d have felt too tainted to even share a bus with the mother of the fox he had so unwittingly saved.  He knew it.  He wouldn’t have even spoken to her out of self-revulsion.

 

The weasel then perked up, his mind really coming fully back online.  “Wait, so… did you actually… already know who I was before… Before I told you that story?”  He needed to be sure.  Had she actually been leading him to this moment the entire time?  After all the times Wilde had hustled him, had he just gotten the biggest hustle of his life from that fox’s _mother_?!

 

“Duke, I looked for you for nearly two weeks before I found you in that diner.”

 

“J-Judy…” he stammered, “She told you my name.  She told you what happened.”  It began to all make sense.  Vivienne Wilde had intended to help him the entire time.  She planned it.  He should be upset, right?  Why wasn’t he?  As he suspected, there really was an angle.  There really was a bigger plan, and he’d played into it perfectly.  Why wasn’t he able to be unhappy about that?  He gazed up at the smiling vixen as she wiped her eyes.

 

“Yeah, it was Judy...  And before you ask, she and Nick did _not_ ask me to do this.” Viv said bluntly.  She glanced up and sighed, “In fact, I suspect Nicholas will have all _kinds_ of advice to give as to why I _shouldn’t_ , but that doesn’t matter.  I watched you.  I knew about the job with the insurance place failing.  I know you lost your apartment.  I know that even though you were homeless, you didn’t go back to your old tricks.  What you wanted was _genuine_.  That’s when I stopped watching, Duke.  That’s when I made my choice.”

 

“I got hustled.  You knew the whole damned time who I was… what I did…”  He stated it, not to shame her, but because he was still dumbfounded as to why that didn’t _matter_ to him.

 

“Tell me the other way I could have made you understand that you deserve this, Duke,” Vivienne demanded.  Duke was quiet.  He knew better.  There wasn’t another way.  It was still confusing as to how this had worked so flawlessly.

 

“I should be kind of mad.” Duke expressed.  “But I’m not.  Why ain’t I mad?”

 

“Who would you be mad at, Duke?” asked the Viv.  The smaller mammal looked back up at her, eyes wide.  There.  That was the problem.

 

“If I fell for a hustle, I’d be mad at myself.  But…”  He stared down.

 

“But you don’t hate yourself enough anymore to be mad at yourself for this.” Vivienne whispered.

 

“I don’t… hate myself anymore…” Duke repeated.  His eyes were shamefully wet.  Why did it feel so hauntingly good to say something so utterly dopey like that to her?  Because it was finally true, that’s why.  “How, Viv?  How did you even know all this would work?” he croaked.  She couldn’t have known so completely that this would be how it ended.  No plan the weasel had made in his entire life more complicated than flushing a toilet had ever gone this flawlessly for him.

 

“I didn’t, sweetie…” Vivienne embraced him again.  This time he pretty completely melted into it.  He really needed it.  “I wasn’t so sure… not at first especially.  I figured I would be able to help you a little and you’d move on, or you’d figure me out and get spooked by whatever the heck I was trying to do, and you’d bolt.  Hell, Duke…  I dropped cash on purpose just to see if you’d keep it.  If you had taken it and run, that would have satisfied me, and your payment would have been that.”  Duke widened his eyes at this admission.  A test.  She tested him.  He lowered his head.  That was fair of course.  If he wouldn’t swipe a hundred bucks dropped by a stranger when he was homeless and hungry, he wasn’t going to risk his job and home dipping into the till.  Even if Viv had never been sure, her plan had been so meticulous.

 

“So… I should tell you…” the weasel said in a softer tone.  “I ain’t that great with customer service stuff.  Talkin’ with mammals and stuff.  You really want a guy like me behind da counter there?” he asked.

 

Vivienne spoke back with a more determined voice.  “There’s gonna be challenges, Duke.  This isn’t a handout.  You should know that.  But I think we can do it together.  If you still want to, now that you know who I am.”

 

Duke hugged the fox one more time, figuring it would be weird once she was his boss.    He finally released her and sighed.  “Yeah, Viv.  I want to.  I’ll give it everything I’ve got,” he promised, reaching out a little paw.  Vivienne scooped him in and hugged him again.  He felt so small in comparison, but he didn’t want to be anything but small right then.  It was perfect.

 

After a moment of composing herself, she spoke again, “Well, it’s getting late, and I think that if we hope to get finished with the floor outright tomorrow, we need to get to work right at nine, alright?”  The older fox struggled some to get up from where she’d ended up sitting on the floor.  Duke helped as much as he could.  She dusted off her jeans.  He walked with her over to the door, smiling.  It was quiet in that moment but his mind was absolutely spinning.

 

It was going to be okay.  Not just tomorrow, or a day or so from now.  It was really starting to hit him, and he was having trouble getting his thoughts around it.  Everything might just be okay for Duke Weaselton.  Vivienne would feel better with what she was doing, and he had no reason to deny her the comfort _that_ would give.  All of it was _right_ , not wrong.  It might still be hard, but he was ready for the challenge.  At least now he wouldn’t be doing it all alone.  He’d be right there with a source of strength he’d never felt before.  A true and genuine friend.

 

Duke then had a thought and gritted his teeth.  “So you know… I think I maybe been unfairly judgmental of your son this past week, Viv.  All I knew is that here you was workin’ your kind and generous tail off on this place and he ain’t never called.  He never came over to help.  He didn’t even check up on you, and I been loathing his sorry hide to bits for it... but this entire time he ain’t been here because you knew I’d figure everything out.  You been keepin’ Nick away.”  Duke chuckled at that little detail.  He had hated that fox so much, not realizing who it actually was.  It was absolutely ridiculous.  All of it was.

 

Vivienne laughed joyously at that.  It was musical to Duke.  “Yeah, that would have derailed things pretty badly.”  She chuckled as she picked up her phone and pocketbook and unlocked the door.

 

Duke then faltered.  Oh yeah!  “Wait, you said Nick’s got a girl.”  He grinned at that unexpected revelation making the connection in his head.  “Who’s Nick’s girl?  I ain’t ever seen…”  His eyes went wide.

 

“Yeah, he’s vowed up, can you imagine?  That dumb romantic.” Vivienne chuckled.

 

“Wait, your _son_ is the most precious thing in the world to you.” Duke stated in a slow and even tone.  No.  Not that.  He was just being silly from all the shocks to his system.

 

“I promise he is.” Vivienne practically purred.

 

“You gave Judy the most precious thing you had.”  Duke connected the dots, feeling like a complete nut for even suggesting it.

 

“Goodnight, Duke, be ready to work first thing in the morning!” Vivienne chimed brightly before closing the door.

 

Duke stood stark still, staring at the door. 

 

Of course.  Why not?

 

Why not in this crazy world where Duke Weaselton could actually win?

 

The small mammal slowly looked down at his little feet on the freshly done flooring.  He gave a weak chuckle as he felt almost lovingly crushed under the sheer absurdity of his new life. 

 

“G’night, boss.”


	5. Desserts and a Denouement

 

**The Duke of Absolution**

_ Chapter 5:  Desserts and a Denouement _

 

 

 

 Knowing who Vivienne was _did_ change a few minor things for Duke.  He felt slightly more connected to his new boss and, as a result, he trusted her more.  He questioned so many other things less.  The situation stopped feeing uncertain and scary to him.  This all made sense.  Life made sense.  Where he was going didn’t feel like a wholly fabricated hope.  He belonged there.  She told him that.  He believed her.

 

He used some of his earnings to buy things to cozy up his small room upstairs, since he was no longer holding on to every penny he made to plan for the unknown.  He hadn’t discussed with Vivienne what his salary would even be, but he really didn’t care.  When it came time to collect his first regular pay check, it was signed by Gideon, not Vivienne, and the amount was perfectly fine to him.  The other fox’s mark on the check was also proof that Duke had a _job_ , and wasn’t just getting a handout.  He proudly opened a real bank account, and then got a rather nice smart phone so that he had a normal bill to pay like every law abiding mammal in the city.  It was such a seemingly small thing, but it felt unreal to the changed mammal.

 

While the days whipped by alarmingly fast, it still took another week and a half to finish refitting the store to get it looking the way Vivienne wanted.  There were new fittings to put in, special lighting for the display case, a colorful sign to put in the window, and a sound system to put in for the purpose of background music.  Duke was happy to find that rock and roll was the music of choice.  It would be tolerable background noise, at least.  They had to wait about three days just for the health inspector to go over everything and then to make a few necessary repairs to the venting.  The weasel became increasingly excited about how much he was able to actually _help_ with just by watching videos of how to do it and competently mimicking the techniques he saw.  Where he thought he might eventually become dead-weight for the different sorts of remodeling that needed to be done, he was able to do pretty much anything he really attempted to do.  The warm glow of feeling welcome here was not even close to how it felt to feel like he was actually needed.

 

A day before the grand opening, Duke helped his new boss bake a wide variety of treats.  While he would be running the counter most of the time, Vivienne wanted to run things up front occasionally as well.  This would allow her to interact with the local guests, she had explained.  This meant that at least some of the tasks, like putting things into the oven or taking them out, or even doing some of the preparation, were things Duke could easily help with.  That morning, he was given a pale pink polo shirt with his name stitched into it.  Duke remembered in his past he’d made fun of folks that wore things like this, but he put that small shirt on with pride.  He felt a sense of belonging that this uniform shirt was intended for.  It wasn’t the understanding that he was part of a lawful enterprise that bolstered his self-esteem as he wore it.  He was part of Vivienne’s success.  He wanted that.  For the first time, the smaller mammal had discovered that he could still want something for himself and not feel guilty.  What he wanted for Duke was still valuable to Vivienne.  His success would be hers as well.

 

A few shop owners from the same street got to come in and try an assortment of the test-baked goodies which Duke and Vivienne had made.  Occasionally, the pair looked up to see a random passer-by nose-printing the glass from outside.  Vivienne invariably beckoned them in to try out the confections.  There was a promise from nearly _any_ who sampled something that they would be buying more of them.  This encouraged the weasel, but he certainly wasn’t surprised.  Vivienne really could make the pastries just the same as Gideon.  The ‘Happy-Pie’ logo on the door and the pink and cream colored awning outside were simple and eye-catching, so it drummed up interest even on the first day it had gone up.  Some mammals were even familiar with the brand from Bunnyburrow already, and were very openly excited about having a shop in Zootopia proper.

 

Around the end of the day, Duke and Vivienne relaxed in the well-lit bakery together.  The ceiling fans in the rafters hummed quietly and ‘Eye of the tiger’ played an inspiring background to their preopening.  Duke felt content with how things had gone, and he savored the relaxation at the end of a test day that had gone swimmingly.  There was a soft tap on the door.  One of the other local shop owners had just left with a sample, so the weasel suspected he’d sent someone else to try something.  That had been happening all day.  Duke groaned, however, as he spotted a familiar couple of faces in the door.  The smaller mammal whined softly and shook his head at his boss, but Vivienne kindly opened the door anyway.

 

“You came back!” the vixen chimed with a genuinely delighted tone.  Mike and Rudy. They were the coyote and bobcat associates from the weasel’s less reputable former life.  The two entered with smiles.  While Duke appreciated that his boss could still be so civil given how Mike had insulted her before, the smaller mammal was not feeling quite as forgiving.

 

The coyote chuckled.  “I figured you was open with all the good smells, but the door was locked.  Saw us comin’ down the road, didja?” he asked wryly.  The weasel remained quiet, not wanting to put himself in the way of Viv’s wit.  He’d learned over the days working with her that she was very mentally agile.  No defense was needed from him.

 

Viv just grinned sunnily, however.  “Of course not!” she chimed, “We don’t open officially until tomorrow.  We’re testing out the ovens and everything, making sure we don’t have technical issues to take care of.  You can certainly try something, if you like.”  Duke frowned at that.  This guy needed to be verbally bounced around some more, in his honest opinion.  Still, he let the vixen control the situation.  Vivienne was the one that got insulted, after all.  Rudy was already moving over to the case to see the few remaining desserts on display.  A lot of what they made earlier had been cleaned out already.

 

“Peach.  A peach thing.  I _need_ dis.” The friendlier cat said with a wide grin, pointing through the glass.

 

Vivienne chimed brightly, “Sure!  What would you like, Michael?” she asked.  The coyote seemed a bit tense, as if having really expected that he’d be further abused by the vixen.  Duke couldn’t blame him.  He had kind of expected it too.  Maybe Vivienne’s kindness was even more painful to him.  Duke narrowed his eyes a bit as he considered that.  It _was_.  This fox was so good at the psychological warfare thing.  Rudy, however, seemed unaffected.  He had obviously been the one to convince the uncomfortable coyote to come. 

 

A little uncertain, Mike pointed to a cherry Danish.  “I’ll have uh… that one.  That looks super warm… and buttery!”  He seemed to be trying to compliment the lady fox, as it seemed she was playing nice.  That put Duke at ease a little bit.  Her verbal slam the other evening had actually earned the crooked coyote’s respect, perhaps.

 

“Certainly!  Nice choices, both of them.”  Vivienne used tongs to put them on paper wrappers and gave them to the uninvited guests.  “Thanks for helping us with the samples!  It would be a tragedy to have to throw any of them out.”  There was another tap on the door.  The weasel perked up.  _That_ would be the guests the last shopkeeper had sent.

 

“I’ll get it,” Duke said, hopping down off the tall stool behind the counter.  He could hardly stomach how kind Vivienne was to that jerk, so being a little further from them was a good thing for him right then.  However, as he arrived at the door and looked up, he froze as he saw two more familiar faces on the other side of the glass.  Duke felt a wave of raw emotion blow hard through him as Judy Hopps smiled through the door at him and waved.  Her partner stood right behind her.  They were both in uniform.

 

His heart hammered painfully in his chest.  He knew he would eventually see them the night he found out who Vivienne really was, but did it have to be now?  He wasn’t ready to do this right that moment!  When would he ever be ready though?  He’d thought a lot about this eventuality and knew it would happen, but there they were.

 

“Uh oh.” Rudy said under his breath, distracting the almost shaking weasel.

 

“What?  Oh.”  Mike tensed up noticeably.  Duke had been, a second before, so anxious about seeing Nick and Judy again after everything that happened.  However, seeing how _uncomfortable_ the presence of uniformed police officers made Mike helped guide the weasel’s paw to the door.  It chimed as Nick and Judy entered.

 

Vivienne spoke gleefully from behind the counter.  “Hey, you two!  I’m glad you made it out to this side of town.  Rainforest today, was it?” she asked.  It was obvious why.  Nick’s longer tail-fluff was a bit wavy, a sign of having to wander around in the wet heat of that side of town.  District locals called it the Sun-Claw Falls Wave, after a popular attraction there.

 

Judy answered energetically.  “I said we’d be here!”  The bunny took a longer look at Duke, eyes gleaming with interest in the uniformed and properly employed mustelid.  It made him feel a sudden sense of apprehension.  He’d not spoken to the bunny since it happened.  He told her where to get her partner, but he also _sat_ on that information a while.  Was ‘Flopsy’ happy about that, or angry?  She had every right to be both.

 

“Hey, look who it is, Fluff!” Nick chimed, crossing his arms.  Duke immediately assumed the fox officer was talking about him, and prepared to hear him make fun of his pink-toned uniform shirt.  He had steeled himself up for that.  He’d deserve it.  He didn’t mind.  Instead, Nick redirected the attention away from the former bootlegging weasel.  “Latrans!  We haven’t seen you since… let me seeeee…”  The uniformed canid tried to remember.

 

Mike barked out sharply, “Haha, yeah, it’s been a while, huh?”  He was obviously trying to cut Nick off.

 

“Oh, that’s right, the canal!  How’s your back?” Nick asked with a tone of actual concern.  Duke found himself studiously peering at the male fox’s face, almost not even paying attention to what he was saying to Mike.  How?  How had he not _immediately_ seen the resemblance?  It was especially telling when Vivienne had joked and looked so _smug_.  It was just _crazy_ that the weasel had no idea!

 

“What happened to his back?” Rudy asked.  Duke was suddenly curious about that too.  He was pretty sure he knew why the police officers would have _known_ the coyote though.

 

“He didn’t tell you?” Nick asked incredulously, as if just immediately knowing the cat and coyote were pals.  “A good while back, he went and tried to _bludgeon_ Officer Hopps here with a broom handle.  It was so _unfair_.”  Duke, having been on the receiving end of a Hopps takedown, knew why Nick had stressed that last word.  It wasn’t unfair to the bunny.

 

“Sad?” Rudy said sharply.  He looked with sudden disgust at the coyote he had come in with.  “That’s awful!  Dude, she’s a bunny.”  Yeah, the cat didn’t know.

 

The larger canid snapped back, “Shut it, Rudy.  I wasn’t trying to hit her!  I was trying to scare her.  I never even swung at anyone, or I’d be in jail right now, doofus.”  He then pouted as Viv’s tongs whipped back over to him and his Danish went missing.  The vixen had taken back his treat.  “Aw man.  Really?  I didn’t hurt nobody.  I was runnin’ scared!  That bunny _wrecked_ me for it too.  _That_ is how I hurt my back.”  Duke grinned.  He knew it.  Flopsy gained a few points in his book.

 

“Oh.  Okay then,” Vivienne responded calmly as she placed the treat back on the paper wrapper in Mike’s hand.  The coyote wagged his tail.  Duke furrowed his brow.  How had everything gotten so casual?  Was this really life now?  His past and present and future were melting together in a fever-dream scenario.

 

Judy spoke up Duke digested the scene.  “We _are_ a lot later than we’d hoped to be.  What’s left… anything?” she asked.  The bunny moved over by Rudy.  The bobcat was still tense.  It was likely he was more anxious now that he’d been informed that she was physically dangerous.  “Oh, the lemon tart, I’ll have that please, Viv.”  The vixen happily got a treat for her, and the weasel took a moment to consider the fact that he was actually privy to something most of the city was _not_.  Vivienne was actually _family_ to Judy.  It provoked another wave of emotion through the smaller mammal.  That bunny got _her_ fox back.  Duke was partly involved in _that_.  Would they try to say anything to him about it?  It was a sensitive subject for him because it was at the center of his new world.  It was the event that changed _everything_ for him.  He didn’t know what to say.  Maybe they would just not say anything due to the mixed company.

 

“I’ll have the blueberry muffin!” Nick chimed.  “Ooh, those look pretty heavy on the berries, too!”  The vixen gave her son the indicated treat, leaving just a few tarts and another Danish in the case.  The uniformed fox whipped his tail about, stating politely, “Thanks, Mom.”  The coyote and bobcat both visibly flinched at that. 

 

“Mom?” asked Mike with a slight whine to his voice.  Duke felt the desire to physically roll around in the perfume of Mike’s agonized realization.  This was incredible.  Please let it last forever.

 

“Yep!” Vivienne chimed proudly.  “You seem to already know him, but Officer Wilde is my son.”

 

“Cool...” Rudy said uneasily, and took a bite of his treat.  His expression lit up and his little tail flitted rapidly side to side.  Duke couldn’t blame him.  He felt the same way about these desserts.  “Oh geeze!  This is amazing!”

 

“Wait, you _don’t_ know Mike?” asked Nick, turning to his mother.  Viv’s son had an expression of genuine confusion.

 

“No, not personally,” Vivienne said.  “He dropped by to say hi to Duke a while back, but that’s the first I’d seen of him.”  Mike suddenly whined pitifully and took a huge bite of the Danish.

 

“This is so delicious!” he said with a bit of forced enthusiasm.  He looked horrified even as he said it.  Watching the coyote devolve into apparent insanity was as delicious to Duke as any pastry here.

 

Nick crossed his arms, brow furrowed, “Wait, Mike… you said-…” 

 

“Oh hey, Rudy, we need to get to the train stop!  We’re gonna be late!”  He grabbed the still treat-nibbling feline by the wrist and pulled him toward the door.

 

“Bye, Mrs. W!  This is the best!” Rudy said, seeming confused, but not about to stop his distressed friend.  Duke figured that they were just trying to get away from the two cops.  The weasel was mirthfully pleased to have watched the bad-mouthing coyote get his fur ruffled by a fox again, and locked the door behind the departing pair.  He turned to see Nick talking to Judy about ‘criminal mischief charges’ due to the number of blueberries used in his muffin, obviously complimenting his proudly grinning mother.  It made Duke feel immediately self-conscious for being a part of the moment, even if indirectly.

 

This was Vivienne’s _real_ family.  Duke was enjoying Viv’s company so much as if it were some special privilege that he had, but a pulse of near electrical realization rippled through him as he understood.  It was how she treated _them_.  It’s how she treated her family.  He struggled with what his right was to any of that.  But Duke didn’t ask for it.  To Vivienne, he’d earned it.  To her, this very moment had been given to her by the weasel nervously observing her real happiness.  She really would not have had this chance any other way.  The smaller mammal had to stop denying it.  He gritted his teeth, his chest suddenly aching a bit.  This family moment, and all the ones she still had to look forward to were why he got _his_ second chance. More of the uncertainty about whether his boon was deserved eroded away in the moment.  As he watched Nick and Judy joke with one another and laugh with Viv, Duke saw how deeply happy the older fox really was.  Silently, maybe even selfishly, the weasel smiled and enjoyed their interaction too.

 

Finally, after they had finished their selected treats, Judy spoke up cheerily.  “Do you need any help with the cleanup, Viv?  I’m off duty and I don’t mind helping a little before we head out.”  She beamed at the lady fox.

 

Viv smiled sunnily to the bunny.  “Oh no, dear, we just have the pans there in the case, that can wait till morning.” 

 

Judy crossed her arms.  “No, I’m sure I can help a little.  I did promise, and you didn’t let us help out at _all_ with setup.”  Vivienne looked back and forth between her and Nick, then Duke, and then back to Nick.  The other fox nodded to his mother.  Vivienne widened her eyes just a tick, as if getting what was being requested.  Duke’s heart sank.  Nick wanted to talk to the weasel, and Judy was taking Vivienne out of the room.  He swallowed.  He knew it was coming eventually, but he wasn’t really ready to deal with this.  The weight of that day still filled him with a kind of unreal level of overwhelming raw emotion, even months later.

 

Vivienne spoke in a honeyed tone, “I suppose I _could_ use some help folding the towels, they just finished drying and all.”  She smiled meekly to Judy.

 

“Great, I’m good at folding square fabric!” the bunny laughed.  The suggestion there was that she might not be a domestic diva beyond that. 

 

Vivienne laughed, “They’re rectangles, dear.”

 

“I’m gonna need help.”  Viv and the bunny laughed as they exited stage ‘out of earshot’ and the small weasel looked up with bulging eyes at the taller red vulpine.

 

Duke had known Nick for a few years before the fox moved to the other side of the legal fence, as it were.  They had a conflicted relationship from the very beginning because they were technically in competition for angles to take advantage of the general public.  Nick even squeezed Duke out of a lucrative deal with Mr. Big.  However, after he switched sides, there was even _more_ conflict between them.  Nick and Judy were always just around the corner, and Duke had trouble with his usual line work even before the incident under the city.  He was constantly interrupted in his business ventures by the energetic and highly capable officers.

 

Looking back on it, Duke understood it more.  They didn’t want him to go back to getting into trouble when they’d advocated for him after the Nighthowler case.  They stuck their necks out for him.  His conspiracy charges got dropped because of those two.  It he got arrested _again_ right after that… it would have looked bad for the duo.

 

Now, though… it was different.  Duke had no idea how to deal with this fox.  He didn’t know how Nick should feel about him.  It was like looking at a stranger that he was somehow irrevocably connected to, especially now that he was working closely with the officer’s own family.  There would be no avoiding Nick, starting right that moment.  And one thing needed to be made immediately clear.

 

“Yew don’t owe me nuttin’” the weasel immediately blurted.

 

 “I know that,” Nick said calmly.  Duke blinked at that.  Oh.  That was… abrupt and easy.

 

“Oh.  Well,” he murmured, trying to get his conversational bearings in the moment of awkwardness.  “Yeah, so.  It’s alright.  Nothing owed.”  This wasn’t as bad as he thought it might be.  Nick was being cool about it.  Maybe it had way less emotional impact on the normally trash-talking, snarky fox.

 

“Sit down, Duke.”  Nick nodded to the stool on the other side of the counter where the weasel might normally sit.  Okay, so maybe not quite that easy.  Duke climbed up onto the stool.

 

“Yeah, sure… hup!  So ah… I’m happy to see yer doin’ well with th’ police work and everything.  Hey, and I’m tryin’ hard too, see?” he indicated his pink shirt proudly.  _Make sure the fox knows the opportunity Vivienne gave me is appreciated, that’s the ticket_ , thought Duke.

 

“I want to make one thing clear to you, Duke,” Nick said, leaning over the counter a little, sitting on another stool, level with the smaller mammal.  The little weasel stared back with round eyes.  “To owe you _anything_ , I have to _ask_ first, Duke.  I did not _ask_ you for anything.  The bunny did not ask you for anything.  And I know that _you_ never even meant to give… the thing you ended up giving her… to me.”  Duke remained stoically silent.  Okay, so it had emotional impact on the fox.  He was being serious.

 

“Okay, so I agree, and it’s cool, yeah?” Duke offered.  He was a little confused by what was becoming a speech from the former con artist.

 

“See Duke… we foxes have a very… defined sense of debt.  We have very specific rules in place.  If a thing is asked, or a trespass is made, a favor is owed.  But if a thing is given unasked, it’s a gift.  So you are right.  To a fox, nothing is owed.  But, at the same time, I cannot deny… it _is_ a gift.  But whose is it?  Who do I thank, if not you?”  Nick sat back with evident frustration.  “How exactly do we come to this place?”  The weasel sat up straighter.  The way Nick spoke pulled Duke out of the spotlight slightly to let him appreciate the absurdity of the situation that delivered them there.  What the fox was saying also made it clear he had spent time _thinking_ about this conversation too… likely more than Duke had.

 

The smaller mammal finally broke the awkward silence.  “Look, I’m really glad you made it.  I swear… I had no idea that yew could be _alive_ down there, fox… I mean… I waited a week.  Yew coulda got helped sooner, Wilde.  You coulda died ‘cause I waited.”  He needed to say this part.  It was, to Duke, his last terrible deed before his absolution.

 

“Shut up Duke.” Nick said flatly.  Duke stopped talking.  “The entire city overlooked my fate, and assumed I was dead.  _You_ thought I was dead.  So… I gotta know.  Why did you go find Judy?”  Duke blinked at that.

 

“Yew didn’t deserve to be down there,” he answered, going with what was really in his heart.

 

“We weren’t what you’d call friends.  Why?” he asked.

 

“Cause yew was always a jerk, Nick.” Duke deadpanned.

 

“No, not asking why we weren’t friends, Weaselton.  Why did you care?”  Duke looked up incredulously at Nick.  What kind of question was that?

 

“What do you mean why did I care?  Why shouldn’t I?  It wasn’t right you was down there, that’s why!”  He felt like Nick was questioning his integrity.  The fox could call into question every deed the smaller mammal ever did _except_ that one.

 

“You’re offended,” Nick observed annoyingly.

 

“Yeah.  So what?” he asked.

 

“I hit a nerve,” the fox added.

 

“God, are you serious?  What the hell?” he asked.

 

“You know what strikes nerves?” Nick asked.

 

“YOU!” Duke snapped.

 

“The truth,” came the vulpine’s reply.  Duke paused, looking at the quiet fox.  Nick didn’t seem to be smug or condescending.  His expression was actually serious.

 

“What?” Duke asked.

 

“You had every reason and excuse to stay out of it… but you got involved.  You had to.  You printed and drew and carefully labeled a damned _map_ , Duke.  Maybe you didn’t understand then.  Maybe you still don’t.  So… tell you what… I will thank you for your gift of one map for Judy Hopps by giving you a map of my own.”  Nick leaned back, looking up at the spinning ceiling fan.  The weasel was a little lost.  The idea of a map seemed genuinely helpful just to get through this meandering vulpine soliloquy.  Nick spoke again, slowly.  “That fox you knew years ago… The one you didn’t have any reason to care about before… that wasn’t the real me.  It never was.  You’ve hurled a few barbs my way about me going straight, but something happened to me over a year ago that made me throw away that… _insufferable_ fraud.  You had some choice words the first time you saw me in blue, but I didn’t care how you felt about it.”

 

“Look I was wrong…” Duke offered.

 

Nick interrupted his apology.  “You didn’t understand then.  But I think you do now.  The life you had, the one you knew so well… suddenly stopped even being compatible.”  Nick looked down at his paws a moment, then back to Duke.  “My mom probably told you I’d be against you working here with her.”

 

“She ah…” Duke looked down.  Nick changed gears too fast.  It took him a second to catch up.  “She suspected maybe you’d have reservations, sure.”  No sense saying otherwise.

 

Nick continued looking down.  “She would be right.  When she told me what she was going to do, I might have initially said some impolite things about it.”  He looked back at the wide-eyed weasel, his foxy ears back in shame.  “I was wrong.”  Duke didn’t expect that.

 

“I’m tryin’ real hard to prove-…” he was cut off.

 

“No.  I was _wrong_.” Nick calmly interrupted again.  “You don’t have to _prove_ anything.  I realize it now.  I don’t _know_ you, Duke.  I never did.  See, the _old_ Duke Weaselton… he went out the same way the old Nick Wilde did.  That poor goof wandered too close to the bunny.”  Duke stared back with huge eyes at the accusation.

 

He chuckled anxiously.  “Blame the rabbit.  Gotcha.”

 

Nick continued in a soft, mellow tone.  “Old Nick, he was snuffed in the weeks before Bellwether’s arrest.  And you… just a few months ago, you found yourself in a really _strange_ place.  It was like you couldn’t even breathe the same air you’d been breathing.”  The smaller mammal remained completely quiet as tingles buzzed through his slender brown-toned form.  What Nick was saying struck so deep that he was barely restraining his entire body from shaking.  That was _exactly_ how it could be described.  How could he recount the experience even better than the weasel could himself?

 

“Y-yeah…  That’s right…” he mostly whispered, peering up at the fox.  “It felt like dyin’ and bein’ just… dropped into a new place.”  Having another angle with which to view that moment made it easier to decipher for him.  It was frightening and he didn’t know what to do or where to go.  It really was like what the fox was saying.  He glanced back down and took a deep breath before speaking again.  “Why you gotta make it so heavy Wilde?  Why’s it gotta be like dyin’?”  It seemed more frightening that way.

 

“Because you can’t come back from it, Weaselton,” the fox informed.  Duke actually physically shuddered from that.  That was it.  Nick was telling him this because of the finality of it all.  The way the fox viewed it meant he couldn’t go back to his old ways because the new fox didn’t _have_ old ways.  That was how dedicated he was to his new existence.  And that was how dedicated the weasel wanted to be as well.

 

“I ain’t goin’ back, Wilde.  I just had a hard time findin’ my way forward.”  He wanted to be clear that he’d been trying hard the whole time, not just now that Nick’s mom was helping him. 

 

Nick spoke confidently, “I know.  So I am giving you my map, Duke… I’ve been where you’ve just started from.  My trip wasn’t easy, and we both know yours won’t be either.  My map is easy, see.  It only gives you one direction.  Find someone on the _right_ road and _follow_ them, Weaselton.  I got way more lost than I needed to at first and it was a lot harder for me than it should have been because I didn’t have that map.  I want you to have it.  Do you understand what I am saying?” he asked.

 

“Y-yeah, fox.  I got it.  I… Thank you, I understand.”  Duke looked down, lip trembling a bit.  He couldn’t help wondering if the old Nick was really like this, just hidden.  Was he that thoughtful?  Did he care so much?  Was this what the road the smaller mammal now found himself on actually did to a mammal?  He always thought that everyone was the way they were, and that was how they were.  Was it not the mammal, but the journey?  Could it really have been that way his whole life?

 

Nick broke the introspective silence.  “I didn’t owe you before, but I’m about to owe you now.”  Duke looked up, giving the fox his complete attention.  “My mom moved here because she wants to be close to her family, and she took a big chance moving out here.  You know as well as I do that, tough though she may be, it’s no place to be alone.  _Please_ help me look after her.”  Duke felt a hard yank in his heart.  Nick looked away, ears back.  “You maybe don’t now, but I nearly lost her once.  I want to know she’s okay.  I need to be sure.  Can you do that?”  He looked back at the weasel, green eyes anxious.

 

“Yeah, Wilde.  I can to that,” the small weasel said in an even smaller voice.

 

“Now I get to thank you for the other thing you did!” Nick said, his attitude shifting instantly, almost jarringly to something upbeat and playful. 

 

“You’re welcome.” Duke said, actually startled by the shift.  “Wait, what thing?” he asked.

 

“So, _I_ might not feel indebted to you, but foxes have a very non-emotional idea of debts.  It’s all about our strict, complex, well-defined rules to govern them,” Nick explained, “Bunnies, however, do not.  They are very emotional about this... particular sort of debt.”

 

“You can… help her understand how it is then, right?” Duke asked.  Judy didn’t deserve to be uncomfortable over this.  He was on the road.  Nick helped him get on the road.  All debts were paid.

 

“Nope,” Nick said bluntly.  “My life gets better every time Carrots goes with her heart.  I know better than to get in the way of her bunny sensibilities.”

 

“Carrots?  Seriously?” Duke asked.  Nick nodded smugly.  The weasel shrugged with a smile.  “Well, it’s _your_ bunny, I guess.”  This caused the fox to widen his eyes comically.  Duke took a turn at smugness.  So it _wasn’t_ supposed to be general knowledge.  He was right about his assumption.  He felt even more privileged to have had that shared with him.  The little mustelid could have teased, but he decided to dismiss that.  Not now.  Later.  “So how do I let Hopps off the hook?  It’s awkward.”

 

Nick shook his head a little, glancing back in the direction of his mother, who had obviously betrayed him in sharing that information, and then back at the weasel.  “There’s no changing her feelings about that, Duke...  You’ll just have to wait for some impossible problem to come up in your new life and just… I dunno… try to _dodge_ when she shows up to bunny-suplex it…”  Duke looked back at Nick incredulously.  He actually seemed serious saying that part.  The fox then grinned very urgently at Duke, as wide and forced as a grin could be.  It was a little alarming.  He said in a lower tone, “But, that’s not what I want to say thank you for.  What I am _most_ thankful for is… that you went clean _forever_ … and you aren’t going to make Judy arrest you _ever_ again after _everything_ that’s happened.”

 

“Ah…” responded Duke with a little squeak in his voice.  Nick said that in a way that showed _all_ his teeth.  It made it clear this was a demand, not an offer of gratitude.  The weasel understood why though.  Being forced to arrest him again, with how she felt about the weasel’s unintended gift to Judy, would be terribly painful to the bunny cop.  There was a very careful and unspoken threat in that quiet, smiling moment.  If Duke went off the straight and narrow for some dumb reason and forced that unfortunate scenario, it was going to result in unimaginable foxy wrath.

 

“I’m gonna be stayin’ on this side of the law now, Wilde.” Duke said in a serious tone.  “I promise.”

 

“My mom’s eager to help you with that.  So look after her, yeah?” Nick said.

 

“Right.  Yeah,” Duke replied, slightly choked up.

 

“You know… This is like having a brother,” Nick grinned.  Duke flinched.

 

“No!  God, no!  It ain’t never like that!” he cried, cupping paws over his little ears to keep the notion out.  Out, out, out.

 

“We can go on campouts and start a band!” Nick obviously teased with an excited grin.

 

“Absolutely not!”  Duke threw his paws up in horror.

 

Nick put his larger paws together excitedly.  “We can rebrand our animosity as sibling rivalry!  It’ll be great!  I mean… I’m always gonna give Mom the best birthday cards; that’s not even a remotely level playing field.”

 

“I hate you Wilde,” Duke said flatly, tiny ears back slightly.

 

“Finnick and I can take you with us to play mini golf!”  Nick bounced a bit on his stool.

 

“Now I know you’re messin’ with me, fox.  Ain’t no one gonna dare suggest mini _anything_ to Fin!”  Duke paused, sitting up straighter.  “Wait, is Viv’s birthday soon?”

 

Nick’s expression brightened to exuberance and he gestured at the grumpy-looking weasel.  “Ah?  Ah?  Think you’re gonna get her a nicer card, huh, little brother?”

 

Duke flattened his ears again.  “I’m _older_ than yew, fox!  Gah!  We are _not_ siblings!  And I’m _so_ gettin’ her a better card.”  Duke crossed his little arms defiantly and leaned back, staring helplessly at the spinning fan above.  He heavily sighed out a deflating breath.  “This is so messed up.”

 

Nick just laughed.

 

 

 

 

*************

 

 

 

_So ends the short series “Duke of Absolution”.  I hope this little journey has been enjoyable, and I look forward to providing more of Guardian Blue soon.  Following this small series should be Season 3 of Guardian Blue.  I may have some holiday treats in store as well, so watch the series page for updates!  Thank you!_

_I can be contacted at_ [ _sarsis@gmail.com_ ](mailto:sarsis@gmail.com) _or can be found on Telegram as @alpssarsis_


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